Jono & Jules do food & wine

This dish was inspired by the prettiest striped baby aubergines in our local grocers. The recipe is from a new book of ours, Australian Food by Bill Granger. We all loved this dish, jam-packed with Asian flavours and truly delicious. You need to marinade the salmon the day before. Serve with rice.

Wine Suggestion: A friend had given us a bottle of Albert Pic Chablis which we found a surprising match for this dish as we’d thought the aromatics, chilli and spices might fight the wine, but no! A relatively rich and full-flavoured Chablis, the dryness inherent in the wine just accentuating and complimenting the umami savouriness through the dish. We like surprises.

Chilli miso salmon with hot & sour aubergine – serves 4

• 4 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp mirin
• 2 tbsp sake
• 6 tbsp white miso paste
• 2 tbsp gochujang paste
• 4 x 250g pieces skinless salmon fillet
• 100g frozen edamame beans
• a small handful of pea shoots (if you can find them, don’t worry if not)
• a handful of coriander leaves
• lime wedges, to serve

FOR THE HOT & SOUR AUBERGINE:

• 125ml light flavoured oil, for frying
• 4 baby aubergines, thickly sliced
• 100ml tamari soy sauce (if you don’t have this use dark soy instead)
• 100ml mirin
• 50ml rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp runny honey
• 1 small chilli, finely sliced
• 4cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
• 2 scallions, finely sliced

You need to marinade the salmon fillets the day before. Make the marinade by mixing the sugar, mirin and sake together in a small pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat and whisk in the miso, then stir in the gochujang paste and leave to cool.

Put the salmon into a dish, cover with the marinade, then cover and leave overnight in the fridge.

To make the hot & sour aubergine, heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Shallow-fry the aubergine in batches, turning after 1 minute, until golden and tender. Drain on kitchen paper.

To make the dressing for the aubergine, whisk together the tamari, mirin, rice vinegar and honey in a large bowl. Whisk in the chilli, ginger and scallions. Add the cooked aubergine and toss gently to coat. Set aside.

Cook the edamame beans according to the instructions on the pack, then drain.

Lift the salmon pieces out of the marinade. Heat a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and cook the salmon for 6-8 minutes, turning once.

Serve the aubergine and salmon with the edamame, pea shoots and coriander sprinkled over and with lime wedges on the side.

(Original recipe from Australian Food by Bill Granger, Murdoch Books, 2020.)