Ingredients
| MISO-BRAISED EGGPLANT | |
| 6 Asian eggplants | |
| 2-4 tablespoons neutral oil | |
| 3cm piece ginger, chopped | |
| ¼ cup miso | |
| 2 tablespoons soy sauce | |
| 2 tablespoons mirin | |
| 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds | |
| STICKY RICE | |
| 1½ cups (300g) sushi/short grain rice | |
| 5g kombu | |
| ½ teaspoon salt | |
| 2 tablespoons sunflower oil | |
| 250g mince, pork or chicken | |
| 4 spring onions, finely sliced, green and white parts separated | |
| 2 cloves garlic, chopped | |
| 100g shiitake mushrooms, sliced | |
| 1 tablespoon soy sauce | |
| 1 tablespoon mirin | |
| 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar | |
| GREEN BEAN SALAD | |
| 1 tablespoon soy sauce | |
| 1 tablespoon mirin | |
| 1 tablespoon lemon juice or rice wine vinegar | |
| 1 tablespoon neutral oil such as sunflower | |
| 1 teaspoon sesame oil | |
| ½ cup edamame beans | |
| 200g green beans or snow peas | |
| 100g sunflower or pea sprouts or pea tendrils |
Using a roll-cutting technique to cut long, thin Chinese or Japanese eggplants gives you a lot of surface area to brown nicely and soak up the sauce flavours. Cut this way it is great for stir-frying or browning and then braising as in this recipe. This miso-braised eggplant is served with a Japanese-style sticky rice; using white sushi rice gives you a stickier texture, brown sushi rice stays firmer. To make this recipe plant based/vegan you can replace the mince with crumbled firm tofu or tempeh or even just increase the quantity of mushroom and kombu.
View the recipe collection here
Instructions
| 1. | MISO-BRAISED EGGPLANT |
| 2. | Place an eggplant on a chopping board and slice one slice off diagonally. |
| 3. | Roll the eggplant over a half turn and cut again at the same angle, making a triangular piece of eggplant about 4-5cm long. |
| 4. | Keep rolling and cutting with the rest of the eggplants. |
| 5. | Take a frying pan with a lid, add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan and heat to medium-hot. |
| 6. | Add the eggplant and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until browned. |
| 7. | Stir in the ginger then lower the temperature to low and add ½ cup water then the miso, soy and mirin. |
| 8. | Cover and braise, stirring occasionally, until very tender, about 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the eggplant. |
| 9. | Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with the sticky rice and a green bean salad. |
| 10. | STICKY RICE |
| 11. | Put the rice in a bowl, cover well with cold water, stir around with your fingers then drain off the cloudy water. |
| 12. | Repeat this process a few times until the water is fairly clear, then drain the rice into a sieve and set aside to drain well. |
| 13. | Put the kombu in a saucepan and cover with 600ml water. |
| 14. | Put over a low heat and slowly bring to a simmer (this should take about 15 minutes), then turn off the heat and let sit for at least 15 minutes. |
| 15. | Remove the kombu (reserving the water), finely slice and set aside. |
| 16. | Measure out 550ml kombu water into a saucepan and add the drained rice and the salt. |
| 17. | Bring to the boil then cover and lower the heat to the lowest simmer and cook for 10 minutes (25 minutes for brown rice) while you prepare the topping. |
| 18. | Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. |
| 19. | Add the mince, if using, and cook for 5 minutes until brown. |
| 20. | Stir in the white part of the spring onion and the garlic and stir fry for a minute. |
| 21. | Add the shiitake and stir fry for another few minutes then remove from the heat. |
| 22. | Stir in the soy and mirin and deglaze the pan, scraping all the bits from the bottom, then finally add the sliced kombu. |
| 23. | Uncover the rice and spoon over the shiitake-kombu mixture. |
| 24. | Cover again and cook for a further 10 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave undisturbed for 5 minutes. |
| 25. | Add the rice wine vinegar and toss then scatter with spring onion greens to serve. |
| 26. | GREEN BEAN SALAD |
| 27. | Put the soy sauce, mirin, lemon juice or vinegar, oil and sesame oil in a small jar and shake well to combine. |
| 28. | Cook the edamame in boiling water for 3-4 minutes, drain, refresh under cold water then drain well. |
| 29. | Cook the green beans for 2 minutes or the snow peas for 30 seconds in boiling water, drain, refresh under cold water then drain well. |
| 30. | Put the edamame, beans or snow peas and sprouts or pea tendrils in a serving bowl and toss with the dressing. |
Recipes & food styling Fiona Smith Photography Aaron McLean / Styling Fiona Lascelles