This is an easy summer appetizer and taste really nice. It's best served cold, and make your body cool down nicely. I made dashi ponzu sauce with lime, and kept in the fridge, so all I had to do was basically to grill the eggplant and assemble with the ponzu sauce. You can find my dashi ponzu recipe on torio's website (you can substitute ponzu with lime or lemon). For the strict vegetarian/ vegan version, use the shojin dashi stock (infused with kelp and shiitake mushrooms) to make the ponzu.
Grilled Eggplant in Cold Dashi Ponzu Sauce
Ingredients
4-5 medium-size Japanese eggplant
1/3 cup dashi ponzu
some thinly sliced scallion
some shichimi pepper
Procedure
1. Grill the whole eggplant on the stove-top fish grill until outside is almost charred and inside is soft. Carefully peel and discard the skin and head. Cut the remaining into 1" thickness crosswise. Transfer to a bowl and chill down in the refrigerator.
2. Once the eggplant is cold, pour the cold dashi ponzu and garnish with scallion and shichimi pepper. Enjoy while it's cold.
