Miso-Glazed Eggplant
Eggplant broiled until it collapses into silk, then lacquered with a sweet-salty miso glaze that caramelizes in minutes. The dish that converts eggplant skeptics.
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Eggplant was the vegetable I spent years apologizing for — bitter, spongy, oily in all the wrong ways. Then a friend’s mother made nasu dengaku for me, and I understood I’d just been undercooking it every single time. You take it well past the point where you think it’s done, until it slumps, and it turns into something closer to custard than vegetable.
The glaze is the kind of thing you’ll want to keep a jar of. I make a double batch and spoon it over anything that will hold still — salmon, mushrooms, a bowl of rice on a night when cooking feels like too much.
Watch me make it
The Recipe
Miso-Glazed Eggplant
Ingredients
Method
- Heat the broiler to high with a rack about 15 cm below it. Score the cut face of each eggplant half in a shallow crosshatch and brush all over with the oil.
- Broil cut-side up until the flesh is deeply soft and slumping and the edges are golden, 8–10 minutes. It should collapse when pressed — undercooked eggplant is the one thing that ruins this dish.
- Meanwhile, whisk the miso, mirin, sake, and sugar in a small saucepan and simmer over low heat for 1–2 minutes, until glossy and just thick enough to coat a spoon.
- Spread the glaze over the eggplant and broil 2–3 minutes more, watching closely, until it bubbles and browns in spots.
- Scatter with sesame seeds and scallions and serve hot, with rice.
Notes — Globe eggplant works, but salt the cut halves for 15 minutes and pat them dry first — it holds more water than the slender Japanese kind. Leftover glaze keeps for a week and is excellent on salmon or roasted mushrooms.