Umami Aubergine Side Dish

 

Hey guys!

Here is my favourite salad dish from Yo Sushi created at home.

Ingredients

  • Aubergine

  • Mirin

  • Light Soy Sauce

  • Dark Soy Sauce

  • Toasted Sesame Oil

  • Rice Vinegar

  • Chilli Oil

  • Rice based honey alternative

  • Sesame Seeds (toasted)

  • Salt

  • Pepper

  • Spring onions to serve

I love it for going alongside an easy stir fry as it’s so simple and the sauce is just yum. The first thing I do is slice up some washed fresh aubergine and lightly dust with salt. Back in the olden timez where these recipes all come from, you used to have to use salt to pull out the bitter water from the plant and then cook it, today they’ve actually been bred and rebred to not have the bitter taste, which I don’t know is necessarily a good thing. But the reality is the taste is great regardless as salt just brings out the flavour, so I still salt them and leave for about 15-45 minutes. It depends on the time. I then baked the aubergine in an oven on 180 c for about 10 minutes, until they soften and just melt. Set aside to cool down as you want to serve this as a cold salad.

Next in a small jug add 1tbsp of mirin, 1tbsp light soy, 1tbsp dark soy, 1tbs toasted sesame oil, a tiny drizzle of chilli oil to flavour, a dash of black pepper, a tsp of vegan honey, a tsp of sesame seeds, a tbsp of white wine vinegar or rice vinegar, and mix up. If it tastes too umami as in like… marmite ish or too strong, then add a dash more vinegar until it resembles the kind of dipping sauce you’d get with spring rolls in your fav restaurant. It’s just easy and delicious.

Once the aubergine has cooled, just assemble on a plate, spoon over the sauce and add some spring onions and quickly toasted sesame seeds, yum.

Let me know how you get on at home!

 
Joseph Harwoodtravel