Our little vegetable garden is now producing a crop of these beautiful, shiny, purple-black aubergines.
This evening I made one of Iaia’s best summer supper-table dishes, dark-rimmed eggplant slices in crisp beer batter. They’re great hot or cool, and very easy to cook. Two medium-sized aubergines make enough for a platter of about 20 slices.

What you need:
Aubergine (eggplant)
A glass of very cold beer
Plain flour (or tempura flour if you wish)
Salt
Oil for frying (I use olive for flavour)

What you do:
Slice and salt the aubergines, leaving them to leech out their excesses for about half an hour. Pat dry and set aside. Pop a couple of centimetres of oil into a wide, deep frying pan and start heating it up so that it is perfectly hot by the time you have battered.

Pour your glass of beer into a bowl and add the flour and a healthy pinch of salt, mixing it all to a gently fizzing, thick, paint-like texture. Make sure you don’t add too much flour at a go, or you will have to add a whole litre of beer, and then there will be a veritable bog of batter left over. Yes. I speak from experience.

Your oil should be pretty warm by now –
drop a tiny bit of batter in, and if it sizzles satisfactorily, you are ready to go. I use tongs to dip the aubergine slices into the batter and coat them well. Drain off a little mixture before transferring to the hot oil. Cook for two to three minutes, depending on how thickly you sliced the fruit, then flip over with care and give them another minute or two. Remove to a paper-clad plate for draining and continue until all of the eggplant is beautifully battered and fried.

Serve with: Beer and whatever else is on your supper table – ensaladilla rusa, sardines, esgarraet…