Spicy Miso Braised Eggplant

I used to only like eggplant in baba ghanoush, and over time that came to include other roasted eggplant. Eating in its whole form was something I only started to like a couple of months ago when I started to cook it myself and this is one of my favorite ways to cook it even though pan-frying eggplant does require a solid amount of oil (that’s also why Chinese restaurant eggplant tastes so good!!). I made this for my parents while were in Tahoe and they loved!

I used:

• 2 chinese eggplants, cut into ~3 inch long sections and then into fourths
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced, separated into whites + light greens, and darks
• neutral cooking oil
• roasted sesame seeds

Sauce:

• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp white miso paste
• 1 tbsp chili oil (more or less, depending on how spicy your oil is!)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• splash of rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup water

To make:

• salt the eggplants for 10 minutes and then rinse and pat dry — this helps to reduce the amount of moisture in the eggplant, requiring less oil to cook
• mix together sauce of miso, soy sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and water
• heat up oil in a pan over medium heat and add eggplants in, immediately give the eggplant a few quick tosses to coat evenly in oil
• pan fry until eggplant pieces are golden brown and softened ~10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes, adding more oil as needed. alternatively, air fry at 400F for 15 minutes
• remove eggplants from pan
• heat up additional oil and sauté ginger, ginger, scallion until fragrant, ~1-2 minutes
• add in the eggplant and sauce, toss and let simmer for ~2 minutes until sauce reaches desired consistency
• garnish with scallion and roasted sesame seeds