braised eggplant & ground meat with miso sticky sauce

ingredients:

• 10 1/2 ounces eggplants
• 7 ounces ground pork
• or chicken　
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons red miso
• a little salt
• 1 tablespoon salad oil
• 2 teaspoons potato starch (katakuriko)
• 2 teaspoons water (for dissolving potato starch)

step 1:

Cut the stalks off the eggplants and then cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Slice each half into 1/2 in. wide pieces.

step 2:

Heat the salad oil in a frying pan and sear the ground pork or chicken on medium heat until it changes color.

step 3:

Add the eggplant pieces and sear until they become soft on both sides.

step 4:

Add the water, sugar, salt and stir. Put some water into a ladle. Add the miso to the ladle and stir with chopsticks until it is dissolved. Stir into the soup. Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes on medium-low heat.

step 5:

To make the miso sticky sauce, dissolve the potato starch in the 2 teaspoons of water. Add the dissolved potato starch to the frying pan. Stir a few times until it becomes creamy.