Starter · Year-round
Berenjenas con miel de caña
Fried aubergine drowned in cane syrup. Crisp, soft, sweet, salty. The first thing you order in a Málaga bar.
Every bar in Málaga worth sitting in puts these out. Aubergine, fried hard, then drowned in dark cane syrup that looks like motor oil and tastes like the inside of a sugar cane. The first time it confused me. Sweet, on a fried vegetable, in a bar, with a cold beer. By the second plate I understood, and I have been ordering it ever since.
Two things make or break it. The salt soak, which pulls the bitterness and the water out so the aubergine fries crisp instead of greasy. And the syrup, which you cook to the thickness of runny honey and then leave alone. Do not stir it past the boil or it grabs and crystallises. Drop a bit on a cold plate. Runs like water, keep going. Stringy like honey, you are there. Going to caramel, off the heat right now.
The trick nobody tells you is the temperature of the syrup. Hot syrup on hot aubergine vanishes into the crust and you lose the gloss. Let it cool to blood-warm, then spoon it over so it sits on top and shines, the way it does in the bars on Calle Granada. Fleur de sel on top. A little lime zest if you want it sharp. Eat them while the aubergine is still hot and the syrup still cool.
- Total time
- 40 min
- Serves
- 4 people
- Difficulty
- 2 / 5
- Pair with
- An ice-cold beer, or if you are doing it properly, a small glass of sweet Málaga wine.
Ingredients
Aubergine
- 2 largeaubergines (about 700 g)
- 1 litrecold water
- 25 gsalt · for the soak
- 150 gflour
- to frysunflower oil
Cane syrup
- 200 gbrown cane sugar (azúcar de caña moreno)
- 100 mlwater
- 1 tspapple cider vinegar
- 1 pinchKalahari or sea salt
To finish
- to tastefleur de sel or Kalahari salt
- optionalgrated lime or orange zest
Method
- 1
Slice the aubergines about 5 mm thick. Dissolve the 25 g salt in the litre of cold water and soak the slices for 30 minutes.
- 2
Drain and pat them very dry with paper towel. Wet aubergine will never crisp.
- 3
For the syrup, put the cane sugar, water, vinegar and a pinch of salt in a small pan. Bring it gently to a boil, then drop the heat right down.
- 4
Let it reduce softly for 10 to 15 minutes, without stirring, until it has the thickness of runny honey. Test a drop on a cold plate. Then take it off and let it cool.
- 5
Heat the sunflower oil to 180 °C. Just before frying, dredge the dry aubergine through the flour and knock off the excess.
- 6
Fry in small batches, 2.5 to 3 minutes, until golden and crisp outside, soft and creamy inside. Drain on paper.
- 7
Lay the warm aubergine on a plate. Let the syrup cool to blood-warm, then spoon it over so it sits on top and shines.
- 8
Finish with a few flakes of fleur de sel and, if you want it sharp, a little grated lime or orange zest.
