This dish evolved from an eggplant recipe that we made from one of the Ottolenghi cookbooks. It basically called for steaming the crap out of a sliced eggplant, and then seasoning it with a Japanese-style dressing. We made it (or some variation of it) quite a few times because it was tasty, easy to put together. It made for a nice side dish for dinner (e.g. along with rice and pickled vegetables) and leftovers were a good addition to lunch the next day. Lately though, we’ve been using our oven a lot for meal prep and it only made sense to recreate this dish with roasted eggplant. We also ended up making some adjustments to the dressing to suit our preference and married it a Chinese-style ginger-scallion sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 large or 2 medium eggplants, chopped into 1 inch chunks
• 2 Tbsp mirin
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp grated ginger
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp neutral oil
• 5 green onions, sliced
• 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Tools Required:

• whisk/ spatula
• sheet pan
• microplane
• small pot
• large stainless steel (or other heatproof) mixing bowl

Instructions:

1. Roast eggplant on a sheet pan in the oven at 350°F for about 30 minutes or until very tender (alternatively, you could steam it in a bowl over high heat).
2. While the eggplant is cooking, add ginger and garlic to a heatproof mixing bowl.
3. Add neutral oil to pot and heat over high heat until (or just before) it begins to smoke.
4. Carefully add hot oil to ginger and garlic mixture. Let cool.
5. Whisk mirin, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and maple syrup into cooled oil mixture.
6. When the eggplant is cooked, transfer it to the bowl and dress well.
7. Top with green onions and sesame seeds.