Hi hello I'm an artist and also I make soup

Ingredients for the Nasu Dengaku

1 eggplant, gently cleaned and sliced in halves lengthwise

enough oil to completely cover the bottom of a pan

about 3 tbspns of light miso paste

1 tbspn of mirin and rice vinegar each (use sake if you get ur hands on it!)

1/2 tbspn of sugar

some sesame seeds for decoration and extra taste

Process:

mix miso, mirin, sake and sugar in a small bowl or cup.

heat the oil in the pan and first fry the peel sides of the eggplant until they are slightly browned and the flesh gets mushy

turn around and let toast from the cut side as well

transfer to ovenproof container lined with baking paper with the cut sides facing up

slather as much of the mmmmmarinade on each slice as you can and put this deliciousness into an oven at 200°C for about 10 minutes

remove from oven and throw sesame seeds on top

keep yourself from devouring this on the spot it's soooooooo good

Next, the SOUP. I used the following.

For the soup itself:

2 dried shiitake mushrooms

3 dried mu-err or black mushrooms

a tbspn of dried seaweed (not nori sheets for sushi, wakame crumbs it is!)

about 2 tbspns of miso paste

a dash of soy sauce and mirin each

water to top it all off

As inlays:

2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into about thumb-thick cubes or well.... cube-adjacent pieces

1 carrot also peeled and cut at an angle to increase surface area

about half a block of firm silken tofu also cut in bite-sized pieces

the remains of Aldi Nord's Grilltofu

which i've tried the first time a week ago and ooooh boy this shit is good

i hope they restock it soon

i'm gonna get ALL of it tomorrow if i can

but i digress. if you use any other kind of firm (smoked) tofu: cut it in thumb-thick cubes and fry it in the pan from the eggplant to use up the rest of the oil

the last of my soba-eggs

but any hard-boiled and peeled and cut lengthwise egg will do

Preparing the soup was easy:

i tossed the shrooms and the seaweed crumbs into a pot, topped it off with water and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours

then i poured everything through a sieve into a different pot to fish out the seaweed and shrooms

toss the shrooms back into the broth

maybe tear them into smaller pieces, they expand quite a bit

add the tater cubes and bring it all to a boil

upon boiling use a small metal sieve to add the miso paste by stirring it through the sieve

now also add the silken tofu and the carrots

and a splash of soy sauce and mirin each

let boil until the tater cubes are done which takes maybe 10 minutes at most if the cubes are small enough

turn off the heat

add the egg halves and fried tofu

ladle everything into your container of consuming culinary delights of choice

top off with the wakame

add chopped spring onions as an afterthought

enjoy hot or let it cool down

it's great from the fridge as well!

my sister also said it smells amazing