It’s eggplant season, y’all! Although eggplant is technically available in stores year-round, peak season is late July through early October. Meaty, versatile, mild in flavor, and with around 12 different types to choose from, eggplant makes for a perfect blank canvas.
From Italian eggplant parmesan, Sichuan style yu Xiang qie zi, Greek moussaka, and the Middle Eastern classic, baba ganoush, you can find eggplant used in hundreds of different applications all around the world. In Japan, the most well-known eggplant dish is called “nasu no agebitashi”, which translates to “fried and soaked eggplant”. The dish is made up of three main components including the star of the dish, our favorite purple aubergine, a dashi-based broth, and a few fun garnishes to bring everything together.
Whether you’re looking for a way to use up your late summer/early autumn crop, a new dish to try, or an easy way to enter the “world of Japanese cuisine”, it’s hard not to love nasu no agebitashi. Buttery and umami-packed—meet your new favorite purple colored dish!
New cuisines almost always mean new ingredients and techniques. This can be intimidating and scary sometimes, so let’s break things down.
A quick guide to dashi:
If you’ve played around with Japanese cuisine or had it before, you may be familiar with or heard of “dashi”.
So, what is it? Dashi is a soup stock.
It is the backbone of Japanese cuisine
and what makes Japanese soups and sauces taste so uniquely Japanese. Contrary to stocks from other parts of the world, it only takes around half an hour to make and only requires a few ingredients. The most common dashi combination (called awase dashi) is the one we use here in this recipe; a combination of kombu (dried kelp) and dried bonito flakes (smoked and fermented skipjack tuna). To make it, place your ingredients into a pot with cold water, turn the heat on to bring the water up to a gentle boil. Once done, simply cut the heat then let steep for 25-30min, and strain. Pretty easy, right? Well, there’s an even easier way to make it!
Some call it the “cheater’s dashi” but sometimes we just want to get straight to the cooking. Just like a western-style stock, you can also get instant dashi as well. With “Ajinomoto Hon Dashi” (shown in the photo above), all you have to do is add water and mix until the favor crystals are dissolved. If you choose to use this method instead of making dashi from scratch, don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone...
Washoku Techniques (Japanese cooking techniques) used in this recipe-
Kakushi-Bocho:
Kakushi-bocho is a Japanese knife cut translating to “hidden knife”. Essentially a light scoring method, this technique has several advantages including ensuring an ingredient is cooked all the way through, helping with mouthfeel, and aiding in the absorption of flavors. It also looks beautiful!
Our 6” Japanese Style Utility Knife is perfect for this job. Light and razor-sharp, the knife slices through the eggplant’s skin like butter--resulting in even, consistent cuts even Chef Morimoto would approve of. Ha!
Suage:
Suage is the Japanese cooking method of frying an item without any type of batter or coating. You may have seen or used this method while making French fries! At the beginning of the word, Su translates to the word “uncoated” and the ending age means to “fry”. The idea behind cooking something using the suage technique is to remove any bitterness while preserving the color and adding a pleasant crunch.
For this recipe specifically, make sure the oil is hot! We want the oil to reach 340 degrees F before putting anything into it. If not, the eggplant will absorb the oil instead of the delicious sauce it’s supposed to soak up.
Like many dishes, agebitashi is not complete without garnishes or toppings. The three most common you’ll see (and the ones we will be using in this recipe) are bonito flakes, grated daikon, and green onion.
Daikon radish is a root vegetable used in Japanese cuisine but is also widely consumed all over Eastern Asia in countries such as China and Korea. When grated raw, daikon is tangy, mildly sweet, peppery, and refreshing.
Eggplant Agebitashi
Buttery and umami-packed—meet your new favorite purple-colored dish! Whether you’re looking for a way to use up your garden eggplant, a new dish to try, or an easy way to enter the “world of Japanese cuisine”, it’s hard not to love this flavorful dish.
Recipe and Photography by Maya Alderman (IG @Kuishinbo_maya)
Forge To Table Knives
Prep time: 30 min
Cook Time: 90 min
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
3 each Japanese eggplants
Canola oil or vegetable oil, for frying
Kosher salt, to taste
1-1/2 cups dashi (see below for ingredients)
1 tablespoon white sugar
2-1/2 tablespoons mirin
3 tablespoons sake
4 tablespoons soy sauce (swap for tamari if gluten-free)
2 each scallions
¼ cup bonito flakes
2-inch knob daikon radish, grated
Steamed rice, for serving
Dashi:
5 cups water, cold
1 large sheet or 3 small strips kombu seaweed
2 cups bonito flakes (unpacked)
OR
1-1/2 cups hot water
1-1/2 teaspoon Hon Dashi (instant dashi broth)
Directions:
DASHI. Prepare dashi using your preferred method. To make it from scratch, place kombu and bonito flakes into a pot with cold water then turn the heat on to bring the water up to a gentle boil. Once the water has achieved a gentle boil, cut the heat and let the dashi steep for a minimum of 20-30 minutes. Before using, strain and discard any solids. To make using instant Hon Dashi, dissolve the flavor crystals in hot water. Make sure to thoroughly dissolve everything.
SAUCE. Add prepared dashi, white sugar, mirin, sake, and soy sauce to a small saucepan and mix together with a spoon. Bring to a boil and cut the heat off. Immediately transfer to a baking dish or heatproof bowl and cover with aluminum foil or cling wrap. Set aside.
EGGPLANT. Before preparing, wash the eggplant with cold water to remove any excess dirt. Slice in half vertically. Place each half skin-side up and score the skin (kakushi-bocho) diagonally, ensuring you do not score any deeper than 1/8 of an inch. Use two wooden skewers next to the eggplant to prevent you from slicing all the way through. Then, cut each half into 4 even pieces (for a visual, refer to photo #4 and #5 above). Wipe any excess moisture off of eggplant before frying.
FRY. In a tall-sided saucepot heat about 3 inches of canola or vegetable oil to 340F degrees. Deep fry the prepared eggplant pieces in small batches, with the skin facing down, for 3 minutes. Do not overcrowd the pot--it can drop the oil temperature which results in greasy and soft eggplant. Use a wire spider or tongs to remove the eggplant pieces from the oil and drain them on paper towels or a wire rack.
SOAK. Once the cooked eggplant is drained, place the pieces gently into the dish containing the sauce. Make sure the liquid is still hot, if not, reheat in the saucepan. Soak the eggplant for 1 hour, covered.
GARNISHES. Prepare the garnishes for final assembly by snipping scallions/green onion into “coins” using a 7-in-1 Kitchen Shears. Grate the daikon radish on a microplane or fine holes on a cheese grater. Have bonito flakes at the ready.
ASSEMBLY. Use chopsticks to place the eggplant pieces on a serving dish and place grated daikon on top of the eggplant, followed by sliced scallions, and finally bonito flakes. Spoon some of the remaining sauce onto the dish. Enjoy immediately with a hot bowl of rice!
Chef's Notes:
Your local Asian market should have Japanese eggplant in stock but If you can’t find it, no need to worry. You can use any type of eggplant! Just note that thicker pieces will need more time to cook.
This dish is delicious both hot and cold.
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