Black Garlic Glazed Miso Eggplant (Nasu Dengaku)
A quick and easy-to-make oven-roasted Japanese Miso Glazed Eggplant (nasu dengaku) brushed with sweet and savory miso glaze, packed with umami flavors from the black garlic!
Servings: 4 Servings
Calories: 134kcal
Ingredients
- 6 Chinese eggplants
- oil (for brushing onto the eggplant)
Black Garlic Miso Glaze
- 7 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons black garlic
- 1 tablespoon miso (preferably red miso)
- 2 tablespoons cooking sake (can substitute with regular sake, or dry sherry)
- 1 tablespoon mirin
Toppings & Garnishes
- green onions (finely chopped)
- toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
Making the Black Garlic Miso
- In a food processor put in the black garlic, water, mirin, sake and miso, and blitz it until it is smooth. (If you prefer a thinner glaze, add 1 more tablespoon of water)
- Set the glaze aside for later.
Cutting the Eggplant
- Make lengthwise cuts running down the eggplant, ½ inch apart. I found it easiest to use a paring knife or a small knife to make these cuts. Alternatively, If you don't want to make multiple slits, you can just cut the eggplants in half, lengthwise.
- Lightly oil the skin and between the slits and run your fingers through it so the oil is spread to a thin layer all over the eggplant.
Oven Roasting the Miso Eggplant
- Line your cookie sheet with foil and fan out the eggplant. Some may not like to fan out easily, don’t worry when it starts to soften up it will be easier to fan out.
- Set your oven to broil and put the eggplant in the oven.. (Make sure you don't leave the stove and watch it like a hawk because it can burn very quickly.)
- Flip the eggplant every 2 minutes, 2-3 times. (Approximately 4-6 minutes a side)
- When the eggplant looks brown and roasted, brush on the glaze and put it back in the broiler for 2 minutes.
- Top it with some sesame seeds and green onions and enjoy!
Notes
- Make sure you use foil to line the pan and not parchment paper. On the broil setting, parchment can catch on fire or burn.
- If you have extra glaze - save it and try using it on grilled meats or mix it into some stir-fried noodles!
- For this recipe, I highly recommend using Chinese Eggplant or Indian Eggplant because it has a sweeter flavor to it. I find that Italian Eggplants have a bitterness to them (which you can remove by drawing out the moisture by sprinkling salt on it and washing it off) but the end result is still not as sweet as the Asian eggplants.
- I like using red miso for this recipe because I enjoy the stronger flavors of miso but you can definitely use the lighter misos (white or yellow) if you prefer a milder glaze.
- If you can't find cooking sake, you can substitute it with regular sake, dry sherry or omit it.
- If you cannot find mirin, you can mix 1 teaspoon of sugar with 2 tablespoons of dry sherry, sake or water and use that instead.
