Miso glazed aubergine or nasu dengaku
Miso glazed aubergine or nasu dengaku
And so my love affair with aubergine continues…Plump and meaty aubergines are in season right now and it would be rude not to take advantage of that fact.
Instead of chucking them into a stew like caponata where they have to compete for attention with many other ingredients, today I made them a focal point of a Japanese-inspired dinner.
In this dish aubergines get cooked under a grill, then basted in an addictive sweet and salty miso glaze and caramelised slightly. It’s such an easy dish to make and even easier to eat!
When my friend dropped in for a chat straight after shooting we both started picking at the leftover food and within half an hour it was all gone! his was despite the fact that both of us had had lunch merely two hours earlier…
- 2 small aubergines
- 2 tbsp shiro miso / white miso
- 2 tbsp mirin
- ½ tbsp rice vinegar
- ½ tbsp maple syrup or sugar
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- untoasted sesame oil, for brushing
- salt
- Cut your aubergines into quarters, lengthwise. Make sure the wedges are as even as possible so that they require the same amount of baking time. To be on the safe side, sprinkle cut surfaces of the aubergines with salt and set aside for 20-30 mins for the salt to draw out any bitterness. Rinse the salt off and pat the vegetables dry with a paper towel.
- Heat up the oven with the grill option and line a large baking tray with a piece of baking paper.
- Whisk miso, mirin, rice vinegar and maple syrup in a small pot over medium heat until miso has dissolved. Take off the heat and mix in sesame oil.
- Brush cut surfaces of the aubergine wedges with a bit of vegetable oil and place them, skin down, on a paper-lined baking tray. Place the tray some distance from the grill so that the aubergine cooks on the inside as well as on the outside. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until tender.
- Take the tray out of the oven and brush the aubergine with miso glaze. Return the tray under the grill for a few minutes until the glaze caramelises nicely. Watch the pieces to ensure they don’t burn.
Miso glaze recipe adapted from this one.
Thank you!
I get it at my local store on Paros. I'm lucky, I guess, as they are next to a Japanese restaurant and so they stock a lot of Asian products. Have you tried AB supermarket? They seem to have a small Asian section too. Ania
I think that brown miso (I assume you mean 'aka miso') has a more intense / salty flavour so simply use less of it and adjust to taste. The glaze will take quite strong on its own but once applied to roasted aubergine pieces it will come into its own. Hope you'll like it!
Ania