[Okuzono Style: The Story Behind the Grilled Eggplant Recipe]

Grilled eggplant isn't exactly a recipe you need to look up in a book,
nor is it a particularly difficult recipe.
However, there was a reason why I obsessed over it and went through dozens of trials and errors.

This was over 20 years ago.
Unlike today, the internet wasn't widespread,
and my main job as a culinary researcher was to come up with recipes
requested by television programs and magazines.

At that time,
one of the things I was often asked for
was low-oil eggplant recipes.

Back then,
it was normal to use a fair amount of oil to cook eggplant,
and recipes that involved deep-frying before stir-frying (which sounds like a hassle now)
were also quite common.

While eggplant has less than 20 kcal per 100g,
a tablespoon of oil exceeds 100 kcal.
Generally speaking, for eggplant dishes,
it was standard to use 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil per dish,
and if you were deep-frying, you would end up consuming even more oil.

Eggplant itself is very healthy,
but when you cook and eat it, you end up consuming a massive amount of oil.
No matter how you look at it, this is unnatural and unhealthy.

But when stir-frying eggplant,
simply reducing the oil doesn't make it taste good.
Eggplant really does pair well with oil, after all.
How could I make it delicious while using less oil?
The trial and error began.

I have summarized the story of my trial and error
and the tips for Okuzono-style grilled eggplant.

1. Soaking in salt water

It was by chance that I discovered
that soaking it in salt water prevents it from absorbing too much oil.

At the time, I was traveling around rural villages across Japan for work with the JA,
and I think it was in Nagano (my memory is a bit fuzzy on that...),
where I was served stir-fried pickles.

For the people there, it was a common dish,
but for me, it was a major discovery.

What did I discover?
That pickles don't release water even when stir-fried,
and that pickles don't absorb much oil.

These two points became huge hints
for my subsequent Okuzono-style cooking.
(The discovery that they don't release water even when stir-fried is a story for another time.)

I see, if you turn them into pickles, they don't absorb oil...
This was a big discovery.
Turning eggplant into pickles...
But if you turn them into pickles, the texture changes...
What should I do?

It felt like the answer was right there, but just out of reach.
As I continued to think about what to do,
I arrived at the Japanese culinary technique called 'tateshio' (brining).

Tateshio is a method of cooking where you soak fish or vegetables
in salt water, and it is a preparation method used to remove the fishy smell from fish or to bring out the umami in vegetables.

If I apply this, it's bound to work!!
It was an epiphany that felt like a certainty.

So,
instead of rubbing the cut eggplant with salt,
I tried soaking it in salt water.

Then, the action of the salt caused the eggplant to try to push the moisture out.
When I grilled the eggplant that was trying to push water out without squeezing it,
because it was trying to push water out,
it was difficult for it to absorb oil! That was the logic.
A huge success!!!
With this, the process of soaking in salt water was established.

By the way,
since tateshio refers to salt water with the same concentration as seawater,
adding 1 teaspoon of salt to 200ml of water gives you that ratio.

2. Coat with oil and grill from the skin side

Now, it is finally time to talk about how to grill the eggplant.

I have been grilling eggplant from the skin side for a long time.

People tend to put eggplant into the frying pan with the cut side down, but
if you compare the skin side and the cut side,
the cut side is sponge-like,
so it will absorb oil no matter what.

The skin side is smooth and does not absorb oil easily, and
the polyphenols in the skin react well with oil to improve absorption,
so if you want to grill with less oil, it is better to start from the skin side.

However, the problem is that
even if you add oil first and grill from the skin side,
when you flip it over, the cut side will absorb the oil,
so you end up having to add more oil.

I wondered if there was a way to solve that.

That is when I came up with the idea of
coating the whole thing with oil from the start.
By doing that, the surface of the cut side is already coated with oil,
so you can grill it perfectly without having to add more oil when you flip it.

And so, I devised a method of coating the eggplant with oil before putting it on the heat.

Furthermore, since I do not want to increase the amount of dishes to wash,
I decided to coat the eggplant with oil inside the frying pan.

3. Steam-grilling

Here, another problem arose.

If you coat it with oil and grill it with the skin side down,
you can grill it with less oil,
but it takes quite a while for the inside to cook through,
the moisture inside evaporates quickly,
and it is difficult to judge when it is done.

So, what should I do?

There is no choice but to put a lid on it and steam-grill it!!

When I tried it, the inside cooked through very quickly,
and because the moisture did not escape, it finished moist and tender.

By the way, as for how long to steam-grill it,
after measuring the time and comparing the results,
I found out that it finishes in 3 minutes.

However, there is an important point after putting the eggplant in and covering it with the lid:

I want you to raise the internal temperature quickly with high heat at first.
Once the oil in the pan starts to sizzle, turn it down to medium heat,
and from there, it takes 3 minutes.

If you do not use high heat at the beginning and start with lower heat,
the internal temperature of the pan will not rise enough,
so you cannot cook it well.
Also, if you raise the temperature slowly, the color of the eggplant will turn bad.

Start with high heat to raise the internal temperature all at once.
This is the important part.
If you do that, it will finish in 3 minutes and the color will also turn out beautiful.

Well then,
that was the origin story and the recipe for Okuzono-style grilled eggplant.

It might sound complicated when written out in words,
but when you actually try it, it is truly simple and truly delicious.

Also, if you apply this method of grilling eggplant,
you can easily make stir-fries and simmered dishes as well.

By the way, the name of the polyphenol contained in eggplant skin is
nasunin.
Isn't that cute?

So, while saying 'nasunin, nasunin',
please, by all means, try making it with a relaxed mindset.

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Okuzono-style: Grilled Eggplant ←Click!!

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