I experimented a lot with this recipe. Here is what I did: I was worried that only soy sauce would be too much for the marinade. So I cut the soy sauce in half, added the oil to it and also added some extra water. Water was not the best addition but it at least diluted the soy sauce. The eggplant did not turn out salty, but the marinade would have been better with spices (ginger for example). After marinating, I sautéed the eggplant until done. Grilling or roasting may be a good alternative too. I then prepared the sauce. I agree with Ginny that tomato sauce seems out of place. I used peanut butter instead (I just had a craving for peanut). I added 4 tbsp of peanut butter and 1 tbsp of marinade to the coconut cream and lime juice. I omitted the miso since I did not have any. I don't know if all coconut cream is sweet but mine was, and the sauce turned out too sweet for me. Next time, I may use half coconut cream and half coconut milk. This still needs to be improved, but it could turn pretty good. *EDIT* The second time I made the dish, I used sweet wine to cut down the soy sauce in the marinade and added ginger and garlic. I think that improved the dish. I used miso this time (I finally found some) and I think it brings depth to the sauce. However, I'd recommend to add the miso after removing the sauce from the stove, since miso should not boil. I used coconut milk instead of coconut cream, which helped with the sweetness and used cornstarch to thicken the sauce.

This recipe has a lot of potential, but I didn't care for it. I consider myself a very adventurous eater, but had trouble liking this one. I served on brown rice which was nice. The eggplant comes out way too salty. I wouldn't marinate in just soy sauce next time. Maybe just fry the eggplant by itself and coat with sesame seeds and serve with soy on the side. The sauce also is lacking something. I added about a 1/4-1/2 t. ginger to taste which was nice. I don't care for the tomato (I used paste) in the recipe as it seemed more Italian than Asian. I would eliminate the tomato. Perhaps some fish sauce would add a nice flavour that would compliment. Dunno. Needs some major playing with.