Last Updated on February 14, 2021
This is another creation of a Japanese style sweet & savory flavor dish. It’s featuring okra cooked in a pan in sweet & savory miso sauce. It’s quick and easy, perfect for a weeknight’s meal!
Sweet & Savory
“Sweet & Savory” is a typical cooking flavor for traditional Japanese dishes. The sweet part typically comes from either sugar, mirin, sake, or sometimes a combination of those ingredients. The savory part could be from either soy sauce or miso. For this dish, we use miso. Miso itself is mainly salty but also has a hint of sweetness, especially when it’s made with rice-koji. (Want to know more about miso and rice-koji? Read this post here.)
Okra
Okra is something that either you are a fan of or definitely not your kind of veggies. We like it (Peter used to hate it) pan-fried, roasted, or quickly branched. Most people can not get over the sliminess but we can’t stress enough that slimy food is actually good for your body! Now, have you noticed that some okra is really tough at the top? In most cases the tough parts are still edible without trimming but if you definitely don’t want to bite into it, try this way! The tough part is around the brown edge on the head. First trim off the very tip. Then put a knife vertically to the brown edge, then shave it off in a circular motion as if you were to peel an apple skin. (We wanted to upload a video but it was heavy… 🙁 )
How to Serve
…You know it…with a bowl of Japanese RICE!
Other Sweet & Savory Dishes
If you like sweet & savory dishes, you may enjoy these recipes;
Japanese Sweet & Savory Tofu Scramble (Iri-Dofu)
Sweet & Savory Daikon Radish Leaves
Pan-Fried Okra in Sweet & Savory Miso Sauce
Ingredients
Sweet & Savory Miso Sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 tbsp white miso
- 1 tbsp sake
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
The Rest
- 13 oz (about 30 pieces) fresh okra
- 1 tbsp grapeseed oil
- 2 tbsp minced ginger
- 1 cup minced yellow onion
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine water, miso, sake, and sugar. Mix well and set aside.
- Rinse okra with running water. Use a towel to dry well. Trim off the tough part on the top and slice them diagonally into 1/2-inch thickness.
- Heat up a large frying pan at medium high heat. Pour grapeseed oil and add ginger & yellow onion. Stir occasionally and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add okra. Season with salt and black pepper. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Next, add the sweet & savory miso sauce. Stir and reduce the heat to medium to medium low. Continue to cook for 5 minutes until okra is tender but not mushy.
- Lastly, swirl in rice vinegar. Give a quick stir.
Notes
- It’s best served with steamed Japanese rice.
