Fried aubergines with honey
September and I can feel autumn creeping in with the early morning mist. Its suddenly chilly in the evenings and woolly socks have been dug out of drawers. The sun disappears from the garden earlier, spiders are decorating everything with garlands of silk and the first trails of woodsmoke are intertwined with the crazy clumsy long legged flight of craneflies. Its been months since our return from the sunlit freedom of the Cabo de Gata and life has been hectic and busy. We have moved house (another project with lots of work) and mourned the passing of a much loved friend and sister, both far too suddenly and far too soon. In amongst all this change and chaos I've been seeking the comfort of cooking. Unpacking my (too) many boxes of cookery books months after the move has proved a welcome distraction. Quite a few hours set aside for organisation have been lost sitting cross-legged on the floor inspired by recipes as I flick through pages and pages of food.
Still dreaming of the carefree days we spent wandering along the Spanish coast, the colourful cover of Sam & Sam Clark's Casa Moro was one of the books that caught my attention. In amongst recipes for gazpacho and empanadillas I found the perfect summer dish to remind me of the trip, berenjenas fritas, fried aubergines with honey, a dish I had looked for in AlmerÃa but had not been able to find as it was perhaps too early in the year for aubergines. Thinly sliced, quickly fried with a crunchy gram flour batter and drizzled with a suitably Mediterranean honey this was worth the wait, even those who declare they hate aubergines will love this.
Instead of using fresh, I used some of the wild Spanish rosemary I had picked along our cliff top walks and dried in the sun on our terrace in San José. This was the perfect dinner for one, sitting in the last of the evening sun looking out on the new garden, a glass of manzanilla on the side.
Berenjenas fritas (recipe adapted from Casa Moro) - serves 1-2
1 aubergine, sliced thinly (about 5mm thick)
Neutral vegetable oil for frying (I use rice bran oil)
2-3 tbsp gram (chickpea) flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
fizzy water
sea salt
fresh or dried rosemary/thyme/oregano
runny honey
Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt in a bowl and with a whisk slowly add fizzy water until you have a smooth batter the consistency of custard. Add the rosemary (or thyme/oregano), cover and keep somewhere cool for 15-20 minutes. Prepare a bowl with some kitchen paper and heat up a couple of cms of the vegetable oil in a wok or other high sided but open pan. Dip each slice of aubergine in the batter so that both sides are covered and place carefully in the hot oil. Turn the slices over after a few minutes or until both sides are golden brown. Fry the slices in batches, don't over load the pan. Remove the cooked slices carefully and place then in the bowl lined with kitchen paper to drain off any excess oil. When all the slices have been fried, sprinkle with sea salt to taste and drizzle over the honey.
Inspired by this simple feast and searching for more Spanish inspiration, I came across Janet Mendel's wonderful blog My Kitchen in Spain, yet another perfect excuse to delay unpacking. The post on tinned fish was particularly interesting, providing a great recipe for the tinned squid I had bought back as a souvenir. You may be pleasantly surprised by tinned squid (or octopus), it's not at all like the fresh fish but is meaty and tasty as well as easy and cheap.
A tin of mejillones (large mussels), my last remaining souvenir, was eaten greedily straight from the tin with a hunk of rough bread to mop up the sauce. Tinned mejillones are a common tapas in Spain and are lovely with a cold cerveza. Opening a tin is the easiest of meals, leaving plenty of time to sit in the garden, enjoying the last of the warm days before autumn begins.
Still dreaming of the carefree days we spent wandering along the Spanish coast, the colourful cover of Sam & Sam Clark's Casa Moro was one of the books that caught my attention. In amongst recipes for gazpacho and empanadillas I found the perfect summer dish to remind me of the trip, berenjenas fritas, fried aubergines with honey, a dish I had looked for in AlmerÃa but had not been able to find as it was perhaps too early in the year for aubergines. Thinly sliced, quickly fried with a crunchy gram flour batter and drizzled with a suitably Mediterranean honey this was worth the wait, even those who declare they hate aubergines will love this.
Instead of using fresh, I used some of the wild Spanish rosemary I had picked along our cliff top walks and dried in the sun on our terrace in San José. This was the perfect dinner for one, sitting in the last of the evening sun looking out on the new garden, a glass of manzanilla on the side.
Berenjenas fritas (recipe adapted from Casa Moro) - serves 1-2
1 aubergine, sliced thinly (about 5mm thick)
Neutral vegetable oil for frying (I use rice bran oil)
2-3 tbsp gram (chickpea) flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
fizzy water
sea salt
fresh or dried rosemary/thyme/oregano
runny honey
Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt in a bowl and with a whisk slowly add fizzy water until you have a smooth batter the consistency of custard. Add the rosemary (or thyme/oregano), cover and keep somewhere cool for 15-20 minutes. Prepare a bowl with some kitchen paper and heat up a couple of cms of the vegetable oil in a wok or other high sided but open pan. Dip each slice of aubergine in the batter so that both sides are covered and place carefully in the hot oil. Turn the slices over after a few minutes or until both sides are golden brown. Fry the slices in batches, don't over load the pan. Remove the cooked slices carefully and place then in the bowl lined with kitchen paper to drain off any excess oil. When all the slices have been fried, sprinkle with sea salt to taste and drizzle over the honey.
Inspired by this simple feast and searching for more Spanish inspiration, I came across Janet Mendel's wonderful blog My Kitchen in Spain, yet another perfect excuse to delay unpacking. The post on tinned fish was particularly interesting, providing a great recipe for the tinned squid I had bought back as a souvenir. You may be pleasantly surprised by tinned squid (or octopus), it's not at all like the fresh fish but is meaty and tasty as well as easy and cheap.
A tin of mejillones (large mussels), my last remaining souvenir, was eaten greedily straight from the tin with a hunk of rough bread to mop up the sauce. Tinned mejillones are a common tapas in Spain and are lovely with a cold cerveza. Opening a tin is the easiest of meals, leaving plenty of time to sit in the garden, enjoying the last of the warm days before autumn begins.
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