A delicious side dish for your meals, torrejas de berenjenas (fried eggplants) is also easy and quick to make, and it requires few ingredients. It's also a vegetarian favorite.
Why we ❤️ it
We're on a mission to spread the love for these torrejas de berenjenas (fried eggplants), but we are surprised (we're really not) that we don't seem to all agree on what these things are supposed to be called.
My mom called them torrejas de berenjenas, but some just call them berenjenas fritas. These are not the only torrejas in the Dominican Republic, the word is also used to refer to other types of fritters, like cornmeal and cassava fritters. This piqued my curiosity, as words and their usage normally do.
What's a torreja?
The book Diccionario of Dominicanismos by Carlos E. Deive [1] doesn't give us a lot of information, calling it simply "an antiquated word for torrija". Torrija is a French toast-type dessert consisting of bread soaked in milk, sweetened, and fried. Dominicans know it (it's not that well-known) as tostada francesa. Torrija sounds a lot like our torrejas, except that all of the torrejas I know are savory dishes.
So what did I learn from all this? Not much really, it was just a reminder that language is complicated, and combined with foods even more so. And that we have to be careful when ordering unfamiliar foods in unfamiliar countries because the idea of an eggplant-based dessert is--frankly--quite repulsive.
Recipe
[Recipe + Video] Torrejas de Berenjenas (Battered Fried Eggplants)
Ingredients
- 2 eggplant (large), cut into ¼ inch-thick [½ cm] slices
- 2 tablespoons milk (whole or skim), (or water)
- 4 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 egg (large), (or 3 medium ones)
- ¼ teaspoon pepper (freshly-cracked, or ground)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup oil for frying
Instructions
Making the batter: Combine milk (or water), cornstarch, eggs, a pinch of pepper and a teaspoon of salt. Mix well. Dip the eggplants in this mixture.
Fry: In a frying pan heat 3 tablespoons of oil. Fry the eggplant slices until they turn golden brown, pouring a bit of the batter around them. Add oil by the tablespoons whenever needed.Rest on a paper towel to soak excess oil.
Serve: Use as a side dish, or meat substitute in your lunch, serve freshly fried.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutritional information.
Referencias
- [1] Carlos Esteban Deive, Diccionario de Dominicanismos. 2da ed. Sto. Dgo: Ed. Lib. La Trinitaria, 2002.
