Recipe: Bill Granger's chilli miso salmon with hot and sour eggplant

Taken from Australian Food, by Bill Granger (£20, Murdoch Books)

Serves 4

This is my variation on the classic miso-marinated cod from the wonderful Nobu restaurants, plus an attempt to make (my favourite) eggplant more interesting for my family. You could serve this with some rice, but the salmon and eggplant are actually rich and filling without any other accompaniment, making this a fantastic carb-free meal if you’re into that.

• 4tbs sugar
• 4tbs mirin
• 2tbs sake
• 6tbs white miso paste
• 2tbs Korean chilli bean paste (gochujang)
• 4x150g pieces skinless salmon fillet
• 100g frozen edamame beans
• 1 small handful pea shoots
• 1 handful coriander leaves
• 2 limes, cut into wedges

Hot and sour eggplant

• 125ml light-flavoured oil, for frying
• 4 baby eggplant (aubergines), thickly sliced
• 100ml tamari
• 100ml mirin
• 50ml rice vinegar
• 1tbs agave syrup
• 1 small chilli, finely sliced
• 4cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced

To make the marinade, mix the sugar, mirin and sake together in a small pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat and whisk in the miso. Stir in the chilli bean paste and leave to cool.

Put the salmon in a non-reactive dish and cover with the marinade. Cover the dish and refrigerate overnight.

To make the hot and sour eggplant, heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Shallow-fry the eggplant in batches of 4-5 slices, turning after a minute, until golden on all sides. Drain on kitchen paper while you cook the rest.

To make the soy mirin dressing, whisk together the tamari, mirin, rice vinegar and agave in a large bowl. Whisk in the chilli, ginger and spring onion. Add the eggplant and toss gently to coat.

Cook the edamame according to the packet instructions and drain.

Remove the salmon from the marinade. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat and cook the salmon for 6-8 minutes, turning once, or until cooked to your liking. Serve the eggplant and salmon sprinkled with edamame, pea shoots and coriander, with lime wedges on the side.

Photography by Mikkel Vang