Miso Glazed Eggplant with Green Tea Rice

After baking with matcha just last week, I found myself in possession of extra powder and a desire to get creative.  As a cooking ingredient, matcha is without a doubt one of the most intriguing in my experience.  It is expensive, quite unique in flavor, and always comes in quantities larger than called for by any recipe.  This would not be an issue if I were more of a self-made tea aficionado.  However, admittedly I would rather have quality tea prepared on my behalf than prepare it myself.  As a friend once commented with regard to some of my tendencies: "Bourgeois as shit."

Enter this delightful dish infused with a contemporary Japanese essence.  I claim that it is contemporary because brief research into the idea of green tea rice turned up no such fusion of Japanese tradition and modern Pan-Asian cuisine.  Indeed, this idea may draw the slightest inspiration from ochazuke, but it gives no credit to that framework.  As a foodie, I belong to the camp that values the spirit of authenticity.  So it was with solemn acknowledgement of my blasphemous undertaking that I proceeded to satiate my curiosity.  Okay, for real though: I had less concern for authenticity than this snobby paragraph projects.

The eggplants were baked in a miso and mirin based glaze that was accentuated by pastes made from fresh garlic and ginger minced to very fine grains.  A dash of low sodium soy sauce and a sprinkling of cilantro garnish rounded out the powerful profile of the miso.  The eggplant was accompanied well by the sweet, slightly tangy green tea rice, although I loathe to call the rice an accompaniment when it capably asserted its own refreshing taste.  The rice, which I soaked in water for ten hours, was perfect in texture.  To be sure, the pairing of the eggplant and rice is both elegant and aggressive as each vies to dominate your taste buds from the moment it enters your mouth.  In summarizing this dinner, I found that it satisfies leaving little to be desire, probably like how happy this cat feels.

For me, the first time making a dish is always the most fascinating because I enter the process with expectations of how the flavors and textures will be married by the finishing act.  Then I taste it.  And more often than not, there are always surprises in store.  I adapted this dish from the recipe found on blue apron, which I recently learned was "a thing."  If I could go back in time to offer myself advice, I would provide the following:

• Blue Apron calls for an entire "bundle" of cilantro.  Their idea of a bundle is definitely less than what is purchased at any supermarket.  I recommend using up to half a cup tops.  Any more and the rice takes on not only a vegetal flavor but a vegetal texture.
• White miso paste (shiromiso) is a lot harder to find that I thought it would be.  I substituted yellow miso (shinshumiso) and used a 1:1 water and soy sauce combination for the glaze while keeping the same amount of liquid as the recommended portion of soy sauce added to the glaze.
• When serving, drizzling additional soy sauce on top of the cilantro garnish only serves to intensify the eggplant, which I thought kicked the already potent miso glaze into hyperactive overdrive.
• Without black sesame seeds to provide a balancing addition to the sharper flavors, it might be worthwhile to lessen the "tang" in the rice by cutting the rice vinegar in half.