Imitation Eel Rice Bowl

Ingredients

• Eggplant

  Raw

  1 eggplant, unpeeled (approx 1-1/4 lb) or 548g

• Soy sauce

  Regular sodium, Shoyu

  1 tbsp or 16g

• Mirin

  sweet Japanese cooking rice wine

  1 Tbsp or 100g

• Sugar

  White, granulated sugar

  1 tbsp or 13g

• Sake

  Alcoholic beverage, made from rice

  1 tsp or 5g

• Seaweed

  Laver, raw

  ½ sheets or 1g

• White rice

  Long-grain, regular, raw, enriched

  ½ cup or 93g

Directions

1. Cook rice according to package directions. Poke holes all over eggplant's skin using a fork. Make a shallow cut around stem just through the skin to aid peeling.
2. Roast eggplant over open flame until skin is wrinkled and insides are tender and "deflated". You can use a rack directly over a gas burner on the stove, or roast in a baking dish the oven or toaster oven, or wrap in plastic wrap and microwave at 600w for 2 minutes. Let eggplant cool until it can be handled.
3. Once the eggplant is cool enough to handle, carefully peel off skin and slice eggplant lengthwise to flatten leaving the halves connected and stopping at the stem. (butterfly cut)
4. Mix together soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake and cook on low heat in frying pan until it just begins to bubble.
5. Add eggplant to pan and cook until all liquid is absorbed/cooked away.
6. Place cooked rice in bowl, layer with thinly shredded seaweed (you can use scissors to shred it) and finally top with eggplant "eel".