Rosemary Fried Eggplant
These fried eggplant bites are inspired by a dish at a lovely tapas restaurant near me and they are what got me to actually start liking eggplant.
This recipe is a fairly "non-recipe" one. Use as much eggplant as you like, the honey and rosemary are also up to you. The only really important thing is the ratio of the batter and the thickness of the pieces.
The nice thing about these is they fry so quickly you can prep everything in advance and when you're ready to serve it only takes about 5 minutes to fry them all. Great to impress friends in the simplest way. My favorite move.
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup vodka
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups neutral oil (I like grapeseed)
Salt
Honey for garnish
3-4 baby eggplants
2 large sprigs rosemary
Batter
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup vodka
1 cup ice water
Pre Recipe Prep
Prep your eggplant
Thinly slice your eggplant into 1/8 inch slices. Place on a paper towel lined flat surface and sprinkle generously with salt. Set aside for 15 minutes until you can see water starting to release. Dab dry, flip, salt and let sit for another 15 minutes. Dab dry again and prepare to fry.
(You can leave these for up to an hour if you need more time).
Make your batter
Heat your oil to medium high in a large frying pan. You want about 1/4 inch of oil in your pan so you may need a bit more or less oil depending on your pan size. You want your oil really hot for these so slightly warmer than a normal fry (for example I normally set my stove to 7 out of 9 but for this I set to 8).
To a small bowl, add 1 cup flour, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt and whisk. Add in 1/4 cup vodka and 3/4 cup ice water. Mix well and add more water if needed to bring it to a fairly runny consistency (like a very thin pancake batter or a heavy cream).
Fry time
When your oil is hot, add rosemary - still on the sprigs as it's easier to remove from the oil if they're all intact. Once the heavy bubbling has subsided, this means the liquid has fried off and they are done frying. Remove from oil and place on a paper towel, sprinkling with a bit of salt.
Dip your eggplant pieces in your batter and slightly wipe off any excess, you want quite a thin layer. Place in oil and cook for about 15 seconds, flip and repeat. If your pieces aren't turning gold within this time, turn up the heat. You want these to fry really fast or they will end up too greasy.
Once fried, place pieces on a wire cooling rack and sprinkle with salt.
Serve
Serve pieces as soon as you can after frying, drizzling with honey, and sprinkling on that fried rosemary and flaky sea salt.
Reheating: These stay quite crisp and are honestly great at room temp, so no sweat if you don't get to serve them all straight out of the fryer.
These don't really last overnight after frying, so they can be reheated within a few hours, but turn a strange color if you refrigerate, so I recommend eating them as soon as you can.
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