In the Kitchen with Laura: Mabo Nasu

​One of the strange things I realized after moving to Canada was that no one seemed to really like eggplant. I could find it almost everywhere—although in Japan, eggplant is small and in Canada they're enormous—but no one I talked to seemed terribly excited to eat them.  In Japan, eating eggplant, or nasu, as a side dish was a weekly event in our house and we would fight over the last piece of eggplant cooked in miso, or enjoy grilled eggplant pasta and sometimes Mabo Nasu.  Whenever we get new students or staff at the Center, the eggplant is sometimes the thing that makes them hesitate. And I get it, eggplant has a weird name, tough skin, undercooked it’s bitter, overcooked it’s a bit slimy. As Japanese food goes, it doesn't have quite the same appeal as eel or sashimi. It's missing the exotic factor.  But eggplant cooked well is very good, and this is probably my favorite way to eat it, a quick stir-fry of eggplant, green pepper, and ground pork. 

Mabo Nasu is a play on the Chinese dish Mabo Tofu. Japan has a habit of stealing dishes from around the world and changing them to meet the Japanese palette to the point that it becomes a Japanese food. Mabo Tofu is usually made from ground pork, tofu, and a spicy red sauce. Substitute eggplant (nasu) for the tofu and we have a less spicy Mabo Nasu.
             
Special Ingredients:

• This is a Japanese recipe so it uses the ubiquitous Japanese ingredients: sake, soy sauce, and mirin.
• Tobanjan (or Doubanjian) is a spicy paste made out of soybeans, broad beans, salt, and chilies. You'll probably have to grab this from an Asian grocery store if you're in North America. You can also substitute in a bit of miso and some other spice paste like guchujang if you don't have it.
• Eggplants in Japan are narrow and long, and the skin is a bit thinner. Chinese eggplant is similar if you can't find it. Your average North American supermarket eggplant will also work fine, although I find the skin is a bit tougher.

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Ingredients

• 6 Japanese eggplants
• 3 green bell pepper
• ½ pound ground pork
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons tobanjan
• ½ cup chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• ½ tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon potato or corn starch

 
Directions:

• Cut the eggplant in half and then into inch-long pieces, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and let sit in a colander for 20 minutes.
• Remove seeds from green pepper and cut into 1inch squares.
• Heat 4 tablespoons vegetable oil in a frying pan or wok. Fry eggplants until soft and browned.
• Remove and repeat with green peppers. Let the eggplant and pepper drain excess oil on paper towels while you cook the meat. 
• Sauté the pork in 1 tablespoon oil until browned.
• Add the ginger and garlic and saute one minute.
• Add the tobanjan, stock, soy sauce, mirin, and sake. Bring to a boil and add the eggplant and peppers.
• Mix the potato starch with 2 tablespoons or water and pour into the soup. Stir continuously until the sauce is thickened.
• Check for salt and spice and add more salt or tobanjan if needed. The eggplant should be soft and have soaked up some of the sauce. If it's tough or tastes bitter and undercooked let it simmer in the soup for several minutes to soften.

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