Aubergines, with honey or without honey? The battle is in Cordoba
The fried eggplants have become a Cordoba typical dish present in all the travel guides and in the menus of the restaurants and taverns of the historic center. They are eaten as if they were pipes and there are real addicts . If you pass by there, you already know that they cannot be missing from your table.
The Cordovans, passionate about this dish, live a kind of underground and gastronomic civil war that divides families, couples and groups of friends into two irreconcilable camps: **those with fried aubergines with (cane) honey** and those with fried eggplants without honey , served only in its particular tempura.
Lately, the honey is put aside, so that blood does not run between the two sides and even so, there are disputes because it is not the same to melt the honey with the hot eggplant than to sprinkle it cold. The war is served.
They are eaten as if they were pipes and there are real addicts
But, in addition, in recent times a new group has emerged encouraged by foreign foodies who are becoming more numerous in the city: **those with fried aubergines soaked in salmorejo**, who are gaining popularity at great speed .
**Diego Gil, from Foodie & Experiences **, in favor of this latest new group, recommends us to try the version that we like the most in traditional taverns, such as El Gallo, Taberna El Pisto, or his favorite, the Góngora Tavern where he always asks for them with honey but served separately, and with a portion of salmorejo. “That way I cover some with honey and others I dip them in salmorejo”. We take note.
Paco Morales, from the Noor restaurant , he declares himself absolutely in favor of aubergines with honey, and recommends us to enjoy them at Casa Pepe de La Judería and Casa Pedro.
In addition, he explains to Traveler.es that the dish, or rather, the idea of fried eggplant has several copyrights: “The product belongs to indian origin , although it was the Arabs who introduced it to the peninsula just like molasses, known as cane honey, while the frying process is of Phoenician origin”.
But it was forty years ago that this dish was reborn in Cordova from the chef's hand Francisco Afan , at Casa Pepe in La Judería . Paco Afan invented the version 4.0 that it worked like a shot in his restaurant and that it was cloned until it became the popular dish that it is today.
The fried eggplant was reborn here
“A very Andalusian solution to a product with Arab reminiscences, which although it can be made with flower honey from Montoro and with honey from Sierra Morena , we usually do with cane honey from Ingenio Nuestra Señora del Carmen to maintain the only molasses factory in the world, which is in the Malaga city of Frigiliana”, he comments Periko Ortega, chef at the ReComiendo restaurant.
He, who gritted his teeth, professionally speaking, at Casa Pepe de la Judería, where he became head pastry chef, head chef and executive chef, fondly remembers that “touch of aubergines abuñuelas” that Afán turned into his personal hallmark and later into one of the quintessential tapas in the city.
Among his most talented addicts we find names like ** Oriol Balaguer, pastry chef at elBulli **, one of the best in the world and a first division chocolatier, who in his book The Dessert Kitchen honored this particular combination of flavors by creating a dessert inspired by them.
Periko Ortega recalls that “every time Balaguer came to Córdoba (and he did frequently), he went to eat at Casa Pepe de la Judería and he ate eggplants . And when he came to dessert, coffee or even with the glass, with his gin and tonic, he would say: "And give me a little cup of aubergines with honey that are like sweets."
Lately, the honey is put aside, so that blood does not run between the two sides
Furthermore, and with a view to return to your menu in full season (although in Córdoba it is always eggplant season) ReComiendo offers a wink in a modern version of this dish: “A fritter stuffed with a liquid aubergine puree with honey, and fried, that when you bite it explodes with that traditional flavor of aubergines with honey”.
That you still don't know what it's like? You're already late. We tell you how to prepare them at home.
WITH HANDS IN THE DOUGH: THE BEST RECIPE FOR FRIED AUBERGINES
If you decide, here is this recipe from the mother house: “The secret is a well-linked orly dough and a good extra virgin oil so that the texture is perfect and crunchy. The cane honey does the rest”, they explain to us from Pepe's house.
Ingredients:
500 grams of eggplants
20 grams of cane honey
olive oil for frying
Orly dough is made by mixing 40 grams of salt, 250 grams of beer, 250 grams of water, 1 small egg and 4 grams of yeast.
Graphic example of deep frying
Elaboration:
Wash the aubergines and cut them in half lengthwise.
Next, cut half moons 1 cm thick.
Reserve in a plastic container covered with damp paper.
For the orly dough, mix all the ingredients in a saucepan.
Blend with a mixer until smooth a homogeneous mass and reserve cold.
Pass the aubergines through the orly dough and Fry them in plenty of hot oil until golden brown.
Arrange the aubergines in the center of the plate and cover them with a string of cane syrup.
Because at home they also know very well