Grandma's Recipes 
長野県 
* Photo is for reference 長野県 🌻 Summer
Japanese Grandma's Eggplant with Miso Glaze (Nasu no Abura-Miso)
Nagano is famous for its Shinshu miso, and this abura-miso is a summer staple that showcases it beautifully. Garden-fresh eggplant is pan-fried in generous oil until silky, then coated in a sweet miso glaze. Grandma always said this single dish could keep you eating rice bowl after bowl.
🧂 Ingredients
servings
* In traditional Japanese grandma cooking, measurements are approximate — think of them as guidelines rather than exact amounts.
| Main Ingredients | |
| Eggplant (Nasu) | a full colander (5-6 pieces) (5-6 pieces) |
| Shishito peppers | a handful (10-15 pieces) |
| Seasonings | |
| Miso (Shinshu miso preferred) | a heaping ladle-full (3-4 tablespoons) |
| Sugar | three pinches. Sweet is better. (About 2 tablespoons) |
| Vegetable oil | being generous is the key (About 3 tablespoons. Being generous with oil is the key) |
👩🍳 Instructions
- 1
Remove the stems from the eggplant, cut in half lengthwise, then into diagonal 1cm slices. Do not soak in water.
💡 Not soaking in water is grandma's way.
- 2
Poke a hole in each shishito pepper with your finger to prevent them from bursting.
- 3
Heat a generous amount of oil in a frying pan over high heat. Stir-fry the eggplant thoroughly until it absorbs the oil and becomes soft.
💡 Grandma used a heavy iron wok. Plenty of oil is the secret.
- 4
Add the shishito peppers and toss briefly.
- 5
Lower the heat slightly, add the miso and sugar directly to the pan, and use the vegetables' moisture to dissolve and coat everything.
- 6
When the miso starts to char slightly and smells fragrant, it's done.
📖 Memories & Stories
Whenever I visited grandma's house, the kitchen always smelled of slightly charred miso. She'd say 'in summer, this is all you need to eat bowls and bowls of rice' while vigorously stir-frying in her big ladle. I loved how the eggplant soaked up all that oil and became meltingly tender. As a kid, biting into a hot shishito pepper and making a big fuss was a great memory too. Even now, every summer I remember that iron wok's sound and grandma's hunched back, and I try to recreate her dish myself.
Source: Learned directly from grandmaWritten from memory (Submitted by: ながののりんご)
🍽 Cultural Background
In Nagano, summer brings an abundance of eggplant and shishito peppers from home gardens, and combining them with Shinshu miso for stir-fries has been a family tradition for generations. The sweetness and depth of Shinshu miso pairs perfectly with oil-soaked eggplant.
