My friends loves this recipe for nasu dengaku, a Japanese aubergine dish. Although I have eaten this many times at Japanese restaurants, I only recently tried making it home. It is quite simple and the ingredients are easy to find. Nowadays in London, Japanese ingredients such as miso and rice vinegar are on the shelves of most supermarkets.
The recipes I found online mostly involved a lot of time and work to grill the aubergines. So, I decided to make a recipe for nasu dengaku using my favourite appliance, the airfryer. It’s easy and grills the aubergine with very little oil. It also makes the sauce bubble and brown nicely. For starters, I would say each person can easily eat a half of an aubergine. In fact, they disappeared quickly and I think people could have eaten a whole one!
Ingredients
2 small eggplants
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup miso paste
2 Tbsp mirin
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp sake
sesame seeds
1 bunch spring onion, thinly sliced (optional)
Instructions
First, slice eggplants in half lengthwise. Then, using a knife, score the inside diagnonally in both directions to form diamonds.
Next put the eggplants face up in an airfryer. Spray with vegetable oil and then bake at 180C for about 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix sesame oil, miso, mirin, sugar and sake. Then drizzle the miso mix on top of each eggplant until the surface is coated.
Bake in the airfryer for about 8 minutes until the miso topping is bubbling. Finally, sprinkle sesame seeds and spring onion (optional) on top and serve hot. I usually serve it with a spoon so it is easy to scoop out of the skin.
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