Whole eggplant, white miso glaze, fifteen minutes of patience and one short interlude where you have a quiet word with the grill.
Why you should cook this
The first time I made nasu dengaku I salted the eggplant for forty-five minutes, scored a diamond pattern with the precision of a man who has watched more YouTube than is healthy, and then forgot to flip them. The miso topside caramelised into a beautiful dark amber. The underside steamed itself into a colour I can only describe as concerning. I served it anyway. A mate from Hobart called it “the best half-eggplant I have ever had,” which is the warmest compliment a half-burnt dinner has ever been given by someone who would normally rather drink his way out of saying it.
That is the dish we are cooking tonight, except this time both halves work. Eggplant halved lengthwise, scored deep, brushed with a sweet white miso glaze, and finished under a hot grill until the top is so dark you start panicking right before it hits perfect. The flesh underneath goes from spongy purple disaster to something soft enough to eat with a spoon, like the kind of eggplant that has finally gone to therapy. Use a Saikyo white miso, the one in the cream-coloured tub at the Marrickville Metro Asian aisle that smells like a polite version of itself. Do not reach for red miso. Red miso is what happens when you took a wrong turn at the airport and ended up making a soup.
The glaze is one part miso, one part mirin, half a part sake, half a part caster sugar. Whisk it. Brush it thick. Trust the heat.
What to drink with it
A junmai sake, served cold, in a small glass that makes you feel slightly more elegant than you are. The savoury weight of the miso wants the rice grain back. A Hakushika Junmai at $19 from a decent Asian grocer is the everyday option. A Kamoizumi Komekara at around $40 from Sake World online is the price-quality sweet spot for a Friday. If sake is not the move, an off-dry Eden Valley Riesling does the same trick at higher volume.
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Score the flesh in a diamond pattern, going halfway down to the skin. This is not optional. The cuts let the glaze sink past the surface and turn the eggplant into something properly soft instead of a vehicle for sweet topping. Salt the cut surface for fifteen minutes, blot dry with a tea towel. Start the grill on medium, add the glaze in two coats brushed on with a pastry brush, and only flip to high in the final two minutes when you want the colour to deepen. Sesame seeds and finely sliced spring onion go on top after the eggplant comes out, not before, or the seeds will burn and the spring onion will turn into the kind of stringy thing your nan would point at and ask “what is that supposed to be?”
Two things that go wrong
Glaze burns to charcoal
You went high heat too soon. Start medium, finish high in the last two minutes only. The glaze has sugar in it and sugar lives a short, dramatic life under direct flame.
Flesh stays squeaky and pale
Undercooked. The eggplant should collapse to the tip of a spoon. If it bounces back, it is not done. Cover with foil for another five minutes and try again.
Variations worth knowing
Firm tofu
Same glaze, same scoring, on a thick slab of pressed firm tofu. Twenty minutes total. Vegan and very polite.
Grilled mackerel
Brush the glaze on a fillet of skin-on mackerel, grill skin-up until the skin blisters.
Hotter version
Add a teaspoon of doubanjiang to the glaze. The eggplant gets a Sichuan accent it did not ask for.
Leftovers and make ahead
The miso glaze keeps two weeks in a sealed jar in the fridge. The cooked eggplant softens overnight and is excellent room-temperature on a piece of toast for a working-from-home lunch you have decided to take seriously. Reheat under a grill, not in a microwave. The microwave will undo the texture you spent the whole evening building.
The recipe
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Ingredients
Method
- Score the cut face of each eggplant half in a diamond pattern, cutting halfway through the flesh but not piercing the skin.
- Sprinkle the cut faces with the salt and rest for 15 minutes. Blot dry with paper towel.
- Whisk the miso, mirin, sake and sugar in a small bowl until smooth.
- Brush the cut faces with oil. Heat the grill to medium-high. Grill cut-side up for 8 minutes until the flesh begins to soften.
- Brush a generous layer of the miso glaze over the cut faces. Grill another 4 minutes.
- Brush a second coat of glaze. Increase grill heat and finish for 1 to 2 minutes until the top is dark amber and bubbling. Watch closely; the glaze can burn quickly.
- Scatter with sesame seeds and spring onion. Serve immediately with cold sake or steamed rice.