Berenjenas con Miel
Thin batons of aubergine in a light batter, cooked until crisp and drizzled with dark cane honey, an Andalusian tapas favourite.
Photograph credit: Berenjenas con Miel by Timo Tijhof · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Berenjenas con Miel: Step by Step
Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.
-
Toss the aubergine with the 2 tsp salt in a colander and leave for 20 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.
-
Toss the batons in the flour, shaking off the excess.
-
Heat the oil to 180°C / 355°F in a deep pan. Cook the aubergine in 3 batches for 3 minutes each, until golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper.
-
Pile onto a plate, drizzle with the molasses or honey and scatter with the flaky salt. Serve at once.
What Can Go Wrong
- Dry the aubergine thoroughly.
- Cook in small batches.
- Drizzle with honey just before serving.
About This Recipe
Sweet and salty at once: the honey on top of crisp, salted aubergine is the combination that people remember from a first trip to Cordoba or Granada. Berenjenas con miel is a tapas bar standard, and the right way to make it is to keep the aubergine thin and the batter thinner.
Cut the aubergine into batons, about 1 cm thick and 7 cm long. Salt them well and leave in a colander for 20 minutes to draw out the bitter juices, then pat dry. Soak in milk for 10 minutes if you want a milder taste. The aubergine must be dry before it is coated. Wet pieces make the coating slide off.
The coating is only flour, seasoned with salt. Some cooks use a light batter of flour, sparkling water and a pinch of salt. Dredge the batons in flour, shake off the excess, and cook in 2 cm of hot olive oil at 180°C / 355°F for 3 minutes, until golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper.
Pile on a plate and drizzle with miel de caña, the dark sugarcane molasses of Andalusia. Ordinary honey, warmed until runny, works well too. Serve at once, with a cold fino sherry.
What to Serve It With
Fino sherry · Manchego · Jamón · Olives
Keeping Berenjenas con Miel
Best eaten straight away.
Common Questions
How long does Berenjenas con Miel take to make?
10 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 20 minutes of salting, so allow 45 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 4.
What's in a Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (how much frying oil the food takes up cannot be known from the recipe). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
You Might Also Like
More Spanish cooking and appetizers ideas from Weekly Delight.
Stuffed Dates
Soft dates stuffed with goat cheese and an almond, warmed in the oven and finished with honey and black pepper.
Papas Arrugadas
Small potatoes boiled in heavily salted water until the skins wrinkle and a white salt crust forms, served with mojo…
Pimientos de Padron
Small green peppers blistered in olive oil until the skins wrinkle and char, then tossed with flaky salt.
Mojo Picon
A spicy red Canary sauce of dried peppers, garlic, cumin, paprika and vinegar, blended in 10 minutes with no cooking.
Bacon Wrapped Dates
Dates stuffed with an almond and wrapped in streaky bacon, roasted until the bacon is crisp and the dates are sticky.
Chorizo in Cider
Slices of cooking chorizo simmered in dry cider until the liquid reduces to a sticky, tangy, paprika-red glaze. The…