Matsuwa Mackerel, Sesame-Miso Cream Bake

‘Sesame-Miso Cream Bake’ is a grilled dish built around regional ingredients, stylishly fusing simmered miso-mackerel with miso-fried eggplant — a greedy answer to wanting both at once. Sagami's Matsuwa saba stands in contrast to Oita's Sekisaba, a rival brand-name mackerel suited to lighter preparations such as sashimi; Matsuwa mackerel instead suits richer dishes like simmering or vinegar-cured mackerel, and it carries especially good fat in early autumn. ‘Kana Murasaki’ is a new water eggplant cultivar released just last year. Its skin is soft enough to eat raw, but it also takes well to oil — deep-fried, it turns wonderfully chewy and juicy. Pairing it with the mealy texture of chestnuts and ginkgo nuts recreates the rich, varied textures of autumn.
Because I am from Kanagawa Prefecture, I devised this early-autumn dish generously built around local Sagami ingredients. I am pursuing a kind of newness that comes from unearthing old craft and presenting it anew.