Shiomomi nasu: Salt-massaged eggplants with Japanese aromotics

I have been addicted to nasu (Japanese eggplants) this last while. They are everywhere at the moment, and the cooking magazines (which I really have to stop tempting myself by looking at) have 101 different ways to use them. The "Mighty Nasu" indeed (to paraphrase one of my foodie heroes Ottolenghi).

Yes, the eggplant/aubergine/patlican/baademjaan/badinjaan/baingan/ brinjal is beloved to many cuisines, but have you ever had it raw?? Most of the world makes a fuss about removing the bitterness from eggplants before cooking them, but here in Japan, it couldn't be easier: Just squish around in a bag with salt! The dark, bitter juices come right out, and you don't even need to cook them. How good is that?

This quick side dish recipe is from the June 17, 2010 edition of the Japanese food fortnightly Orange Page (don't ask; I'm as mystified by the name as anyone...). I thought it not bad, for my first attempt at salt-massaged eggplants, but with the Japanese big three aromatics shiso (perilla leaves), myoga (myoga ginger) and raw fresh ginger, it may be a bit "medicinal" for some tastes.

The trick to this dish is to make sure that all the eggplant slices get massaged well, and to slice the aromatics very finely.

I haven't tried this with the larger eggplants that you tend to find outside Japan, which are called bei-nasu (American eggplant) in Japan. For now, I suggest you seek out small, round Japanese nasu, which weigh about 80-100 g each.

Salt-massaged eggplants with Japanese aromatics

Serves 4 as a small side dish with other Japanese dishes

2 nasu Japanese eggplants (about 160 g total), sliced into 2 mm thick rounds
2/3 tsp salt
3 shiso (perilla) leaves, rolled and sliced very thinly
1 myoga (myoga ginger) bud, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped into thin shreds
splash of Japanese soy sauce (to taste)

1 Place the eggplant slices in a small polythene bag and add the salt. Press out all the air and hold the opening of the bag tightly closed with a thumb. With both hands, gently squeeze the eggplant slices until they loose their juices, most of their bulk and become pliant. Make sure not to miss any of the slices. Tip into a colander and rinse with water. With your hands, squeeze out as much of the water as possible.

2 In a small bowl, toss the shiso leaves and myoga. Add the salt-massaged eggplant, sliced ginger and a splash of Japanese soy sauce. Toss again and serve in tiny bowls as an accompaniment to other Japanese dishes.

Enjoy!

Stir-fried pineapple with ginger (and garlic and lime!)

Here is an unusual savory pineapple side dish. It is just bursting with zip, tang and heat. There is so much going on here that it may outshine the main course, so make sure it is something really able to stand up to it.

The original recipe is in India's 500 Best Recipes, which I have written about before. However, there is no indication as to where it originates (not all of the recipes are from India, despite the book's title). The soy sauce suggests that it a Southeast Asian source might be more likely than an Indian one. Not that it matters when it tastes this good.

You could probably substitute tinned pineapple, but make sure it is not sweetened. Or then again, that might be another interesting variation you could offer as a dessert...


Stir-fried pineapple with ginger

1 pineapple
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/4 onion, sliced thinly
5 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into fine matchsticks
2 tbsp light soy sauce
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 fresh red chilli, seeded and sliced finely

1 Trim and peel the pineapple. Cut in quarters lengthwise and cut out the core. Chop into bite-sized pieces.

2 Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan. Stir-fry the garlic and onion over a medium heat for 2-3 min, until golden. Do not let garlic burn or it will become bitter.

3 Add the pineapple. Stir-fry for about 2 min, or until the pineapple pieces start to turn golden on the edges.

4 Add the ginger, soy sauce, lime juice and chilli.

5 Toss the mixture together until well mixed. Cook over a low heat for a further 2 min. Serve the pineapple as an accompaniment to grilled meat or strongly flavoured fish.

Enjoy!

Plum cous cous

The Young Man has jetted off to Australia for his "summer holidays" and I am now cooking for 1 (or two, since I like to have the second portion for lunch the next day). As the YM says, now's my chance to eat all the herbs that he normally turns his nose up at and to put chilli in everything. There are some benefits to having the run of the house (g).

As I often do when the YM is away, I immediately turned to Nigel for some lazy cooking-for-one food inspiration. Most of the recipes in his The 30-Minute Cook (subtitled The Best of the World's Quick Cooking in my older edition) and Real Fast Food are for 2, so you get great grub without copious amounts of leftovers to somehow cram into your poor overworked freezer.

This is an adaptation of a recipe for peach and almond cous cous in The 30-Minute Cook. I've made it with peaches before and loved it, but it will be another month or so before peaches come down to anything like the price that would permit their wanton inclusion in a side dish (g).

Plums are in season, though, so here we go.

Now, you are probably not going to get lots of luscious juice from a plum like you would with a peach: since you want to be able to dice your fruit, it may not quite have reached the point where it is dripping with sweet nectar. You might want to compensate for this with lots of lovely fresh ground black pepper. You might also want to adjust the amount of lemon juice you use depending on the sweetness of the plums.

I had this with the very brilliant Crisp Spiced Grilled Chicken from the same book. I never can get enough of the stuff. Nigel has even convinced me that you really do want to leave the skin on when it's grilled chicken. And since no-one was around to see, I even got to scoop up the marinade that got stuck to the foil in my grill pan and scoff that down as well. Just don't tell the YM, alright!

I didn't have almonds on hand, so they got left out, but if you want to add them back in, the original recipe calls for 2 tbs flaked almonds, toasted.

Plum cous cous

100 g cous cous
2 large plums, diced
Handful of mint leaves, chopped
Large handful of flat-leafed parsley, chopped
2-3 spring onions, sliced
Juice of 1-2 lemons
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt & freshly ground pepper

Sprinkle cous cous with 100 ml water, leave for 10 min, then break up the lumps that form with your fingers. Chop the parsley and mint, but not too finely, and mix with the lemon juice and olive oil in a salad bowl. Add the spring onions to the dressing.

Halve and stone the plums and cut the flesh into large dice, saving any juice. Add the plum flesh to the dressing along with the cous cous.

Enjoy!