Eggplant Frituras

Intuitive Eggplant has graciously invited us all to get off  our sofas and cook some eggplant!
How wonderful. So on my way home from an appointment Saturday morning I stopped in at our local farmer's market. It was pitiful. Our drought conditions are harsh. Farmers are not getting enough rain. Some with wells are taking risks to water their produce.  County water gets pricey in a hurry. These farmers have to recoup that investment by raising their prices for what is actually marginal produce. 

I did buy every eggplant I saw, 2  Black Russians and 3 Fingerlings. I paid 25 cents for the three fingerling eggplants plus a dollar tip. For a minute I feared I had offended this good man's pride. I tapped his hand and said, " These are hard to find. I hope you will be here all season". I smiled and walked away before he could say  anything. I paid $1.40 for the two Black Russians.

My plan was to come home and set up for a great blog. But, as things played out, I had to go back out to the client at the lake and take more measurements in triple digit heat.

Today I thought would be better anyway. No divided interests. I could take my time and  fix an eggplant dish which would be yummy with the pork tenderloin marinating in the frige. I decided to check on the entries to date as I did not want to duplicate. That's when I discovered I had no internet service. I tried all the usual troubleshooting. Nada. We called the "bundler" (that I call the "bungler") only to be told it was a weekend. As if I did not know. This means fewer staff, longer waits, etc. Then I got a call back saying there had been an outage in our service region and no tech would be coming as service should be restored once the outage was corrected.  Blah,  blah. It is 6pm and we are just now "restored".

What I would have entered had I actually cooked today:

Eggplant Frituras: 

Peel and seed 2.5 cups of eggplant

 Heat half cup of olive oil in a Wok to 375 degrees

mix together:

the shredded eggplant

2 finely chopped scallions

1 egg

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

pepper to taste 

Drop by rounded teaspoons into the heated oil

Fry until golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes 

Drain on paper towels

Salt to taste

Serve immediately 

This is the recipe as published.

I actually soak the shredded eggplant in lemon juice for 10 minutes, drain it well,

then press it between paper towels to ensure dryness. I do this to remove bitterness but

also because I do not use the baking powder because of the sodium value. I do whip the egg before incorporating the other ingredients for a bit of rise to the batter.

If the batter seems too thick, add just enough liquid for your fritter to hold together. 

Apologies to you Eggy!
I'll do better next time.