Eggplant Salad with Mustard-Miso Dressing
One of the few recipes in which eggplant is boiled. It’s an unusual preparation, and a good one, but you can also sauté it, as in Sautéed Eggplant (page 456). Small eggplants are almost always preferable to large ones, and the Japanese know this better than anyone; you don’t even see large eggplants there. (If you must use a larger eggplant, try to get a very firm one, which will have fewer seeds.) Typically, this is made with wasabi powder; but I had it prepared with Dijon mustard in Japan, so I consider this version perfectly legitimate.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 4 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Trim the eggplant and cut it into 1-inch cubes. (If the eggplant is large, sprinkle with salt, put in a colander, and let it sit for at least 30 minutes, preferably 60. Rinse, drain, and pat dry.)
Step 2
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Immerse the eggplant in the boiling water and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well and set in a colander to cool. (You can refrigerate the eggplant, covered, for up to a day at this point. Bring it back to room temperature before proceeding.)
Step 3
Dry the eggplant with paper towels. Whisk together the miso, soy sauce, and mustard in a serving bowl. Add the eggplant along with salt and cayenne, then toss. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve with the lemon wedges.
