Miso Eggplant and Shishito Peppers is a small side dish and goes very well with your steamed rice. It is very quick and easy to make in the last minutes, when you want to add one more vegetable dish to your meal.
Japanese eggplants are very dark, almost black, and much skinnier than American eggplants. (Chinese eggplants are also smaller than American eggplants, but they are a lighter color and a little bigger than Japanese eggplants.) The skin is thin and the meat is soft when cooked. The flavor has some bitterness, but you can easily remove the bitter taste by soaking the cut eggplant in water.
Shishito are Japanese green colored peppers similar to hot green chili peppers. The bitter and fragrant taste is a great companion to meat dishes. The little peppers are somewhat similar to American bell peppers although the size and the flavor are totally different. Shishito are so small that the whole thing can be eaten without taking the seeds out. They are not supposed to be hot, but sometimes they are. They say that choosing good looking ones helps, like thick and straight, not bent and crinkled, to avoid the spicy ones.
Braising the vegetables in the thick Miso sauce makes the dish hearty and delicious. If you add some meat to this, it can also be a main dish. When you find Shishito Peppers at a market, try this savory food for dinner!
Miso Eggplant and Shishito Peppers Recipe
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Ingredients
- 3-4 Japanese eggplants cut into wedges, about 4 cups
- 16 Shishito peppers
- 1 Tbsp oil
- 3 Tbsp water
- 3 Tbsp Miso paste
- 1/4 cup Mirin
Instructions
- Cut eggplant into small wedges. Cut off the stems of peppers, and cut into halves if too big.
- Heat oil in a wok or a frying pan at medium heat, and stir-fry eggplant for a minute. Add water, cover and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the cover, add peppers, and stir-fry for a couple of minutes until peppers get soften a little. Add Miso and Mirin and cook until Miso paste dissolved.
Video
