How to make and eat sweet and creamy dried eggplant

Juicy when grilled, soft and tender when boiled. If you soak it in salt water to remove the bitterness, eggplant can be enjoyed with a crunchy texture just like a fruit. In summer, you can enjoy the firm flesh and crunchy seeds, and in autumn, the moist, soft flesh is packed with sweet flavor.

Eggplant lovers will love the different texture and flavor between summer and autumn. Dried eggplants mean you can enjoy the delicious taste of eggplant all year round!

The appeal of dried eggplant is that it is both convenient and delicious.

If you dry and then freeze eggplant, you can enjoy it for a long time!

When you dry eggplant yourself for the first time, it may end up being semi-dried, and if left in that state, it may go bad depending on the humidity of the storage location, so it is recommended that you dry it first and then freeze it.

Even if you don't have a food dehydrator, making homemade dried eggplant is surprisingly easy! For beginners, we will introduce a foolproof method of making dried eggplant using the old-fashioned method of <drying in the sun> and <microwave>.

Dried eggplant made by "sun drying"

1. Wash the eggplant lightly and wipe off the water.
2. Cut off the stem of the eggplant and cut it into 0.5cm to 1cm pieces.
3. Arrange the cut eggplants on a drying net or a wire rack.
4. Dry in a sunny place for about 2 days.

POINT
Avoid cool, humid days, and expose to plenty of sunlight on a hot, dry, sunny day.

<Microwave> Dried eggplant

1. Wash the eggplant lightly and wipe off the water.
2. Cut off the stem of the eggplant and cut it into 0.5cm to 1cm pieces.
3. Place the cut eggplant on a microwave safe plate, making sure they do not overlap.
4. Repeat heating at 500-600W for 2-3 minutes until the eggplant is dry.

POINT
Don't heat it for too long straight away, and take the eggplant out after each heating session to check for dryness by touching it.

By the way, at OYAOYA , we slowly dry the Kyoto vegetable "Kamo eggplant" at low temperatures. The dried "Kamo eggplant" is soft and melty like grilled eggplant, and you can enjoy its sweetness reminiscent of fruit.

Soft and sweet! How to eat dried eggplant

Keema curry is another minced meat dish that goes well with dried eggplant. When rehydrating dried eggplant for keema curry, yogurt is also a good option instead of water. You can also simmer it with noodle soup and ginger, or soak it in pickling liquid or light pickle base.

We recommend cooking it in a way that allows you to enjoy the soaking water as well, so that you can retain the concentrated sweet flavor of the eggplant through drying and use it in dishes as a vegetable stock.

Furthermore, if you want to cultivate the hidden deliciousness of dried eggplant, try the dried vegetable recipes created by our users using OYAOYA 's melt-in-your-mouth dried "Kamo eggplant" ♪

Dried Kamo eggplant and soy milk soup

Ingredients

• Dried cucumber
• Dried Kamo eggplant
• Dried Manganji peppers

• Dried radish

• 1 teaspoon Shio Koji
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 4 bowls of rice
• Sesame seeds (as needed)

Hiyajiru (cold soup)

• 200ml chilled flying fish soup
• 3 1/2 tablespoons miso
• 250ml soy milk
• 150g tofu
• 1 tablespoon ground sesame

Cooking Instructions

1. Make the stock and chill it (make sure it has a strong flavor). Drain the tofu.

2. Rinse all the dried vegetables, drain them, and mix them with rice vinegar. Add the shio-koji and mix. Set aside to let the flavors blend.

3. Put the miso in a pot, add the stock, and dissolve the miso. Add the soy milk. Crumble the tofu into bite-sized pieces with your hands. Add the ground sesame seeds and the vegetables from step 2, and mix.

4. Place the rice in a bowl, pour in the cold soup from step 3, and sprinkle with ground sesame seeds (not included in the recipe).

Kyoto vegetable dashi soba

We paired soba noodles with "dashi," a local dish from Yamagata. It's good to pair it with hot soba noodles in the coming season, but cold soba noodles are also expected to have effects such as suppressing the rise in blood sugar levels after a meal, improving lipid metabolism, and improving the intestinal environment.

material

• Dried Kamo eggplant 10g
• 5g dried cucumber
• 5g dried Kujo green onion
• Dried Shogoin radish 5g

• 5g dried tomatoes

• Soba noodles for 2
• 3g Natto kelp (chopped kelp or thinly sliced ​​kelp is fine)

Sauce

• Soy sauce...1.5 tbsp
• Mirin...1.5 tsp
• Vinegar...2/3 teaspoon
• 1 tsp raw sugar (or cane sugar)
• Mentsuyu...4 tablespoons
• Shredded seaweed (optional)...as much as you like

Cooking Instructions

1. Finely chop the dried vegetables. Tear the tomatoes with your hands. Chop the cucumbers finely, as they are quite hard. Soak the natto kelp in water until it is completely submerged.
2. Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl, add the vegetables from step 1, and mix well. Drain the soaked natto kelp, add it, and mix. Leave at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
3. Boil the buckwheat and rinse with water.
4. Drain the soba noodles (step 3), place them on plates, and pour 2 tablespoons of the mentsuyu sauce over each plate. Add the vegetables (step 2) and garnish with chopped nori.