Nasu dengaku – miso aubergine
Scott Hallsworth’s Japanese miso aubergine recipe is an utter delight, with the silky, melting flesh of the aubergine coated generously in an intense den miso sauce, served with tangy pickled mooli. This simple vegetarian recipe is bound to become one you return to again and again – fortunate, then, that any leftover den miso sauce can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks. This recipe appears in our first ever cookbook, Great British Chefs, available to buy on Amazon.
Ingredients
Aubergine
- 2 large aubergines , peeled
- vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Pickled mooli
- 50ml of rice vinegar
- 10g of sugar
- 1 sheet of kombu , 5cm long
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp of yuzu zest
- 100g of mooli, peeled
Den miso sauce
- 225g of caster sugar
- 150ml of sake
- 150ml of mirin
- 400g of miso paste
To serve
- 50g of walnuts , toasted and chopped
- 3 pinches of sesame seeds
- 1 pinch of sanshō
- 2 lemon wedges
Method
1
To make the pickled mooli, bring the vinegar, sugar, kombu, salt and yuzu zest to the boil in a medium saucepan and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Thinly slice the mooli and add to the pickling liquid. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 1 hour
2
Meanwhile, make the den miso sauce. Heat the sugar with the sake and mirin until dissolved, then remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the miso paste. There will be some sauce left over from this recipe, but it’s incredibly versatile and can be used in other dishes. Den miso works particularly well as a marinade for grilled chicken, for example
- 400g of miso paste
- 225g of caster sugar
- 150ml of sake
- 150ml of mirin
3
Preheat a deep-fryer or deep pan of oil to 180°C and an oven to 220°C/gas mark 7
- vegetable oil, for deep-frying
4
Cut each aubergine into 7 large chunks and deep-fry until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper, then place on a baking tray
- 2 large aubergines , peeled
5
Coat each piece with a generous spoonful of den miso sauce and bake in the oven for 4 minutes, until the miso begins to caramelise
6
Arrange the aubergine pieces on serving plates and garnish with the walnuts, sesame seeds and sanshō pepper. Spoon the pickled mooli alongside the aubergine and serve with a wedge of lemon
- 3 pinches of sesame seeds
- 1 pinch of sanshō
- 2 lemon wedges
- 50g of walnuts , toasted and chopped
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Nasu dengaku – miso aubergine
