Today I’m guest posting at A little bit of everything (now a trEATs affair) while the author Roxana is back home in Romania. She’s featuring several guest bloggers who were born outside of the US and today is my turn. You probably remember her from the guest post Vegan Green Tea Cookies she shared on Just One Cookbook. She is extraordinary talented with baking and you should definitely check out the delicious Vegan Zucchini Bread she just shared on her blog the other day.
If you are an avid reader of my blog, you probably know there is one category in my website that has only a few entries. Yes, that’s sweets and baking category. Since I can’t share many delicious bread, cookies, or any other nice treats, I hope you find some good recipes in Roxana’s recipes index.
Back to my guest post. Since I don’t have any baking recipe to share at the moment and Roxana is a pescatorian, I decided to feature a vegetarian dish. Eggplant with Sesame Ponzu Sauce is one of my favorite eggplant recipe as it’s very easy to make! The combination of eggplant, shiso leaves, and the ponzu sauce is simply amazing. If you are having a party, you can even prepare this beforehand so you’ll have plenty of time to work on the main course.
Last but not least, I want to thank Ann of Cooking Healthy For Me for the Blogger Award. Thank you Ann! Now please head over to A little bit of everything (now a trEATs affair) and check out this quick and delicious appetizer. Have a wonderful Monday everyone!
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Quick and easy pan fried sliced eggplant served with delicious sauce made from ponzu and sesame oil. The combination of eggplant, shiso leaves, and the ponzu sauce is simply amazing!
- 2 green onions/scallions (finely chopped)
- 5 Shiso leaves (Ooba) (chiffonaded, optional)
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted) (for pan frying)
- 1 Japanese/Chinese eggplant
- 2 Tbsp Ponzu
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- ¼ tsp Konbucha (or salt) (this is not Kombucha, a fermented drink. Konbucha/Kobucha is made from Konbu seaweed)
- Gather all the ingredients.
Finely chop green onions and cut shiso leaves into chiffonade.
- In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for Seasonings and mix all together. Keep in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
- In a non-stick frying pan, heat sesame oil on medium high heat. While heating up, slice the eggplant into ¼ inch thickness. Before eggplant start to change color, immediately start cooking. Brown both sides of eggplant.
- When eggplant is done cooking, place it on the serving dish.
- Sprinkle green onions. If you like it eat it cold, keep the plates in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
- Put Shiso leaves on top and pour the Seasonings over the eggplant.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
I can’t get away from the computer since discovering your wonderful website. I’m searching for a published cookbook that you might be offering for sale, as I find myself printing your delicious recipes and using up a lot of my printer ink! I even salivate at the food photos. Great website! Never heard of Ponzu Sauce before so will have to check my local asian supermarket. Thanks for sharing your recipes. Japanese food is my favorite that I never get enough of. You make it easy to attempt preparing the food. Even your CAPTCHA is easy enough!
Hi Sharon! Thank you for your kind words! :-). I hope you enjoy my Japanese recipes!
Hello Nami,
I found your blog by accident while looking to purchase some Japanese cookery and china last week (late Feb). Ever since, I’ve been making and replenishing my stock of Sunomono cucumbers and wakame, made 3 batches of salted salmon and right this moment I have some seabass marinating in miso paste in my fridge.
Tonight my husband had a huge smile when I served the eggplant with ponzu sauce. However, I substituted the eggplant with green and yellow zucchini since I have them in my fridge. I roasted the zucchini instead of deep frying. On his tray my husband also found Chawanmushi with shrimps, pickled cucumbers served with rice and salted salmon soaked in ocha for dinner. Needless to say it is simply delish!
Thank you for sharing some really amazing recipes. Looking forward to try more of your recipe.
Hi Lily! Your feedback and comment made me really happy! Thank you so much for trying all these recipes. I’m so happy to hear you’ve been enjoying cooking and eating Japanese food at home. Thank you again for writing! 🙂
My husband loves eggplant. I made this recipe as an entree for dinner this evening, along with Yaki Nasu. This is the first time I’ve ever cooked with shiso, and my goodness, as soon as I started the chiffonade, I was completely overwhelmed with the HEAVENLY scent of the shiso. This dish was fabulous, and you are so right: the konbucha really truly does add that extra umami-ness. Thank you so much for your recipe, and your blog! P.S. I should also let you know that I have become a total fan of shungiku, which I had never heard of prior to your sukiyaki recipe. It MAKES the sukiyaki. But I have a hard time finding it locally in Hawaii; it is not always available. So in my yard, I just started a Japanese greens garden. I planted shungiku, red and green shiso, komatsuna, mitsuba, mizuna, and negi. I hope it all grows well. Had it not been for your blog, I would never have dreamed of planting these things.
Hi Debbie! I can imagine eating eggplant as main course with you two. 🙂 I LOVE eggplant too even though I didn’t like it growing up. So happy to hear you tried kombu-cha. You can use it as salt. It’s basically kombu essense so it really brings wonderful flavors. It’s too bad most people can’t use it, so I rarely share recipes with this type of ingredients anymore (or else I get too many emails asking for substitute haha). And shiso… ohhh it’s my favorite!!! Search “Shiso” on my blog – I have shared some recipes using shiso until many people said they can’t find it… and that’s the main flavor for the recipe… and can’t really sub… 😀
Yeah shungiku is wonderful in all types of nabe recipes. Napa and shungiku are the main veggies for hot pot (even for Chinese hot pot too).
And your garden!!!!!!!!! Wow… I want to live right next door!!!! This is awesome. I’m so happy that you are enjoying Japanese greens. Thank you for making my day! 🙂
I swill start looking for Shiso but my resources are fairly limited. Even thou I live near a huge city most of the Asian supply stores are on the far side to where I am. Soo…. after trying to read up on Shiso – do you think it would sort of compliment the eggplant if I were to use a light mix of basil with mint and a filler of flat-leaf parsley?
I also wanted to compliment you on your blog. I’ve only just found you and have done nothing but read, read, copy, copy, print, print your recipes! Thank you so much for this amazing compilation of tempting foods!
Hello Gwen! Shiso is hard to find unless you go to a Japanese grocery store, as other Asian cuisines don’t use this Japanese herb. I’m sure other herbs work BUT the flavor of shiso is so distinctly unique… there’s nothing like that. I really wish this herb will be easily accessible in the future!
Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m so happy you found some recipes you’d like to try from my site. Hope you enjoy them. 🙂
I made this using sliced zucchini instead of eggplant. It was delicious!
Hi Anni! Awesome! Thanks so much for trying this recipe (especially it’s so old…). I’m happy you enjoyed it. Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Nami, I made this for dinner tonight and it was so delicious. I served it with your tofu/ground chicken meatballs (I used ground turkey), steamed squash and rice. What a fabulous meal! I was hoping to save several slices to pack in a bento box lunch tomorrow but it was all gobbled up. I loved that eggplant could be fried in the morning and finished when II got home from work. I like to mix up the tofu meatballs in the morning too and then cook them later. I love your blog. I have enjoyed learning about japanese cooking. My family has enjoyed every single dish that I have prepared from your recipes. So, thank you! Now I need your assistance. What else can I do with the can of Konbu Cha that I purchased for this recipe? Are there other dishes that I can use it with? Thank you.
Hi Christine! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Your meal sounds absolutely healthy and delicious. And thank you so much for your kind words. I’m just happy that you’re cooking Japanese food at home!
Regarding Konbu Cha, you can use it to replace salt (because it’s salty) when you want to add more umami (from kombu).
I always keep konbu cha to make Unagi Chazuke.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/unagi-chazuke/
Others:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-style-mushroom-tuna-pasta/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/chicken-tofu-hamburger-steak/
Omg yes! I love eggplants and sesame. I didn’t have shiso but this recipe was still amazing. I like that it was really simple to put together and will definitely be making this again. Thanks Nami.
Hi Agnes! So happy to hear you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. 🙂
This was so delicious and easy…loved the shiso leaves. Fortunately I doubled the amount of eggplant because there might have been a fight. LOL
Hi Linda! Hahahaha! Good call. I love this simple dish too. I’m glad you enjoyed it (even though it’s posted a long time ago) and thanks for your kind feedback. 🙂
This and your shogayaki made for a very quick and cheap dinner. Delicious as always, even if I don’t always follow the recipe word for word, hahah. Thanks again for sharing.
Hi Jace! Thank you for your kind feedback! I’m glad you enjoyed the dishes! 🙂