With summer rapidly approaching, now’s the time to have a couple of warm weather dishes up your sleeve. You know the ones: light, quick to prepare and perfect with a cold beer. Shingo Tochimoto, of Brunswick’s Tochi Deli, has a riff on a classic izakaya-style tempura eggplant which ticks all the boxes. The delicate, crispy tempura-coated eggplant, crunchy veg and umami-sweet teriyaki sauce is impressive, but also surprisingly easy.
“It can be a snack, it can be an appetiser, or good to go with a main dish,” says Tochimoto. “For some vegan people who like eggplant, it’s good as a main. It depends on the amount or portion of the dish.”
You’ll want to start a little ahead of time to cut the eggplant into sticks roughly 2cm across, adding salt to draw out moisture and bitterness. “It takes 15-20 minutes – just leave it,” Tochimoto says. “Put the eggplant on a metal rack or lean or tilt the plate. After a pinch of salt, the water with the harshness comes out of the eggplant.” Discard the excess water and coat lightly with cornflour, which Tochimoto uses as a quick substitute for a traditional tempura. “Traditionally tempura is made using tempura batter. It’s mixed with flour and water, but instead I used cornflour so it makes it easier to make the kind of tempura style.”
Deep-frying at home can be a hassle so Tochimoto opts for a shallow fry instead, using five millimetres or so of oil in a pan. “Put the eggplant in the pan so that the oil covers maybe halfway,” says Tochimoto. “Cook them for maybe six or seven minutes. I said 10 minutes on the recipe but a nice, crunchy, brown colour is a sign too.” Once the eggplant is done, remove to a rack and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
While your eggplant rests a minute, combine chopped spring onion with the Heinz Street Food Teriyaki Sauce. “Teriyaki sauce has a nice umami, kind of a barbeque-ish taste in there,” Tochimoto says. “And it’s good to go with the spring onion. It has a kind of crunchy texture with this sauce which is nice.” Slice your radish into nice thin rounds – a mandolin is great if you have one, but a knife will do just fine.
To plate up, put your radish down first, then your eggplant, and finally top with the spring onion and teriyaki sauce. Tochimoto recommends finishing with a little sprinkle of shichimi, a Japanese seven-spice blend. If you can’t source it, a little chilli powder will do in a pinch. Serve with a crisp beer or anything fizzy.
Shingo Tochimoto’s tempura eggplant with teriyaki sauce
Serves 2
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
1 large (600g) eggplant, peeled and cut into sticks
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp cornflour
50ml oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
¼ bunch spring onion, chopped
50ml Heinz Street Food Teriyaki Sauce
4 pieces red radish, sliced
1 tsp shichimi pepper or chilli powder
Method
Sprinkle salt on the eggplant, tilt the plate and leave it for 20 minutes to take off the harsh taste. Wipe away moisture with paper towels and cover the eggplant in ample corn flour.
Heat up the pan with oil and pan-fry the eggplant on both sides until it’s nice and crunchy on the outside. Place eggplant on a resting rack and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
Mix the spring onion with Heinz Street Food Teriyaki Sauce. Put radish on the plate and place eggplant on top, then sauce on top of that. Sprinkle shichimi pepper or chilli powder to finish.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Heinz.
