Got eggplant in your garden? Whip up a brown sugar and miso glaze to make this dish

The Abridged version:

• Zoe Barrie’s Cooking in Season recipe for brown sugar and miso glazed eggplant takes inspiration from Lucky Yu restaurant in Scotland.
• Cooks should aim for a custardlike interior to go along with the sweet-and-savory exterior.
• This decadent vegetable side can be served with grilled meat and/or a chilled noodle salad.

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This is Cooking in Season, a biweekly recipe series using seasonal produce available at Sacramento-area farmers markets. 

After traveling through Europe, I’ve returned with a fresh perspective on the world — and eggplant.

I recently learned that the French take vacations for three weeks to a full month in August, which is not only culturally supported but also backed by generous legal minimums (i.e., paid summer leave). After doing something similar this past month (minus the paid leave), I can confirm that vacation clears the mind.

During my time in Edinburgh, Scotland, we stopped for dinner at Lucky Yu, a fun, innovative Asian fusion restaurant in the heart of the city. We ordered a handful of tapas-style dishes including kimchi-and-pork dumplings, tempura cauliflower bao and my personal favorite: miso sesame eggplant.

The eggplant was an unassuming dish that I almost did not order, but a voice in my head told me eggplant is in season, and it would be fun to see how far they could take it. I am very glad I listened.

As someone who has always found eggplant to be one of the least exciting types of produce during this time of year, I realized that my entire understanding of eggplant was uneducated.

This eggplant arrived in large pieces, cooked over a high flame and coated in a savory, sweet, slightly salty glaze that I kept dragging my fork through for one more taste. But something was missing for me in the eggplant’s texture. While a quick cook over a high flame gave it an appealing color, the interior did not quite reach custard-level, which felt like a missed opportunity.

Lucky for me, that missing piece gave me both the inspiration and the goal for this week’s recipe.

Brown sugar and miso glazed eggplant

Total time: 35 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

When properly roasted, an eggplant’s interior transforms into something creamy, silky and melt-in-your-mouth soft. This recipe pairs the roasted eggplant with a brown sugar and miso glaze, then returns it to the oven until lightly caramelized. Serve as a decadent vegetable side dish alongside grilled meat and/or a chilled noodle salad.

Ingredients

1 pound eggplant (such as Fairy Tale, Indian, Italian or Chinese)

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons salted butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons warm water

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon white miso paste

¾ teaspoon sesame seeds, for garnish

Instructions

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 450 F.

Step 2

Slice the eggplant lengthwise into ¾-inch-thick pieces, keeping the stem attached where possible.

Step 3

​​In a large bowl, combine the eggplant, salt and olive oil. Toss to coat. Spread on a baking sheet and roast for 11 to 13 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges.

Step 4

Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, water, mirin and miso paste. Cook, whisking frequently, until the sugar dissolves, the butter melts and the mixture begins to bubble around the edges. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and slightly deepens in color, about 5 minutes.

Step 5

Using a spoon, spread the brown sugar and miso glaze over the eggplant and return it to the oven to roast for 7 to 9 minutes, until the glaze caramelizes in spots and the eggplant is soft but still holds its shape.

Step 6

Arrange the eggplant on a serving dish and sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving.