One of the original Body Holiday 2020 retreat chefs, Lucy Rosenberg is a Bondi local food stylist, recipe developer, caterer and food enthusiast. Lucy loves mixing her love of food with fashion and is known for her big bold flavours. She shares with us her favourite iconic Bondi dishes she makes at home. 

“Bondi is all about fresh, light ingredients and the Japanese cuisine is an absolute favourite amongst the Bondi locals. This sweet miso eggplant is the perfect date night dish, as not only does the eggplant perfectly cut into two, its warming & full of flavour but also super easy to make but will impress your guests.”

Ingredients

For the miso eggplant

• 1 eggplant
• 4 tbsp salt (enough to cover eggplant)
• 1.5 tbsp white miso paste
• 3 tbsp mirin
• 2 tbsp sake
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 garlic cloves
• Neutral oil for frying

Other ingredients 

• 1 cup jasmine rice
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• Coriander

Method

1. Cut the eggplant in half, score it & cover the top with salt. Let sit for 30 min. This will remove the bitterness as well as excess liquid in the eggplant. Once water droplets start to appear, wash salt off & pat dry.
2. Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
3. In a cast iron pan, heat the neutral oil. Place the eggplants in, inside facing down & fry for about 10 min, until nicely golden.
4. Place the miso paste, mirin, sake, honey & sesame oil in a bowl & whisk until smooth & combined.
5. Remove eggplant from heat, throw in the garlic & pour 3/4 of the miso sauce on top. Cover with foil & cook in the oven for 40 min.
6. In this time, cook your rice. Don’t forget to rinse & wash the rice for the perfect fluffy texture. Once washed, place in a pot with the 1.5 cups of water & cook on low heat until holes start to appear in the rice. Remove from heat, let sit with lid on for 5 min.
7. Remove eggplant from oven, take off the foil & pour the remaining miso sauce on top. Place back in the oven & cook for a further 10 min.
8. Place rice on the bottom of the bowl, place one eggplant on top, garnish with spring onion, sesame seeds & coriander. Enjoy!

Check out more of Lucy’s recipes on her Instagram or TikTok

Lucy Rosenberg is a food stylist, recipe developer, content creator, caterer and food enthusiast mixing her love of food with fashion. Her love of food comes from her family. Growing up in a Jewish household with food as her social currency, she was always surrounded by an abundance of incredible home cooked food. It’s only recently that Lucy has taken the leap to follow her food career dreams and since then has worked and created content for Woolworths, MilkRunand many more. She also catered for the original Body Holiday retreat in Byron Bay in 2020 and clients such as Christopher Esber, The Parlour Room and many more high-profile brands. Her designer eye will always want to create the prettiest plate of food, mixing colours, textures, and tastes.

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