Miso Aubergine with Crispy Rice & Sesame Greens

Ingredients

• 2 aubergines, cut into thick wedges
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp white miso
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 250g jasmine rice, rinsed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 180g green beans, trimmed
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced
• 2 pak choi, thickly sliced
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Salt the rice water generously — it should taste like the sea, because this is your only chance to season the rice itself. Cook the jasmine rice for 10–12 minutes until just tender, then drain and spread it out on a tray so the steam escapes. Cooling and drying it now is what gives you crisp golden rice later instead of a soft, gummy block.
2. Whisk the miso, soy sauce, honey and sesame oil into a glossy paste. Score the cut faces of the aubergine wedges in a shallow crosshatch — it lets the glaze sink in rather than sit on top — then toss them through the paste until every surface is slick. Season with a pinch of salt and a good crack of black pepper.
3. Roast at 220°C fan for 25–30 minutes, turning once halfway, until the flesh is meltingly soft when pressed and the edges are dark and lacquered. In the last 5 minutes, scrape up the glaze pooled in the tray and spoon it back over the wedges — that pan-sauce moment is what turns the glaze into proper sticky lacquer instead of a paste baked on dry.
4. Heat the olive oil in a heavy stainless or cast-iron pan over a medium heat. Press the cooled rice into the pan in a single even layer — don't crowd it, don't poke it — and leave it alone for 7–8 minutes, until the underside is deeply golden and you can hear a steady sizzle and smell toasted rice.
5. In a second pan, stir-fry the green beans in a splash of oil for 2–3 minutes until they start to blister and char in spots. Add the pak choi and spring onions and toss for another 1–2 minutes — the leaves should wilt but the stems must still have bite.
6. Off the heat, scatter the toasted sesame seeds through the greens and season generously with salt and pepper. Taste — most of your salt is coming from the miso and soy on the aubergine, so the greens need their own hit or they'll taste flat next to it. Adjust now, not at the table.
7. Break the crispy rice into rough shards and divide between four bowls. Pile the miso aubergine on top, spooning over any sticky glaze left in the roasting tray, then tuck the sesame greens alongside.
8. Scatter extra toasted sesame seeds over each bowl and finish with a squeeze of lime over the aubergine — the acid cuts through the sweet-salty miso and pulls the whole bowl into focus. Lime wedges on the side for anyone who wants more.