This dish was half way prepped and my partner asked … are you blogging this recipe? I paused. He was right the last time about posting something, so I scrambled to take a few photos at the start of making this dish and he took a few too. My Mum regularly made deep fried battered eggplant/brinjal/aubergines as a veg side dish for dinner growing up and she still does!

My parents ran a successful produce market agency. They sourced vegetables and fruits directly from farmers and sold to grocers, food vendors, restaurants and the public. There were other agencies like this at the municipal market place, probably around a half dozen or less. We were fortunate that fresh vegetables and fruit were in abundance in our home. Farm to table fresh! Looking back, despite the many bags of peas and beans my sister and I had to shell or string in peak freezing season, we were truly lucky and blessed with these bounties. (Sometimes this would extend to sheep and game too, but that is a blog post for another time!) Dad sourced produce requested by restaurants from Greek to Indian, Italian and Chinese. He had an uncanny eye for exotic delicacies. So eggplants were a standard in our home long before they were commonly found on grocery shelves. Some of my friends found eating at our home either peculiar…or delicious. I was very young, but I remember Dad inviting friends to our home to show him how to make Paella and other international dishes, or going to his friends in Malabar for delicious curry, unlike anything I’ll savour again. I’m talking late 1960’s and through the 70’s here friends!

Anyhow, just a little history regarding why I love food. It’s very much in the family and my sister is an amazing cook when she finds the time and is the best Tipsy Tart Baker! Our son also has an eye for good food and finds excellent food sources and restaurants. He can teach me a thing or two, that’s for sure! Just tonight I received a photo he sent included here of a dish he had just eaten and I’d never heard of. Okonomiyaki with eel sauce, Bonita flakes and filled with pork and noodles! It looks amazing!

However, back to the eggplant recipe!

Here’s the scoop. You’ll need two largish bowls, one for the spiced beaten egg, the other for the almond flour and pork rind flour. A large skillet filled 1/5 with heated grapeseed oil (or your oil of choice). Don’t forget a platter in the oven on low heat to keep your fried rounds warm until you’re ready to serve.

These are rich and delicious.

• 1 large eggplant sliced in rounds about top finger joint thick is best
• 2 eggs well beaten
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• Optional: 1/2 tsp each of garam masala, ginger, cumin added to egg
• 1/2 tsp each salt and white pepper
• 1/2 cup fine almond flour
• 1/4 cup ground pork rind flour
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp arrowroot powder (optional)
• Oil for frying

1. Top and tail the eggplant
2. Slice eggplant into rounds
3. Beat eggs adding spices and seasoning in a bowl
4. In a separate bowl mix together flour and pork rind, add the paprika for lovely colouring and season with salt and pepper
5. Coat eggplant well in spicy egg mix first, pricking with a knife
6. Quickly put into the flour mix covering well with nut flour mix
7. Gently tap off excess flour
8. Place in hot oil, cook for 6 – 8 minutes or until nicely browned underneath
9. Turn over, finish browning and lift out and keep warm until ready for serving
10. I also top eggplant with a tablespoon of egg mix when in pan to use up extra egg, just a little though!
11. At the end, when all the eggplant are done, I mix together the leftover egg and flour mix, pour it into the hot oil and make a savoury style omelette to slice into strips and serve with stir fried cabbage the next day.

Thanks to my Sweetie for some of these photos!

Here is the omelette!

The hellebore are flowering and are quite lovely in the flowerbeds right now.

I found this leaf in the garden, perfectly eaten to a beautiful lattice.

Mossy froggy log in our garden. I really do like frogs.

I … um, bought some cheese. It’s farmers cheese from Washington, to freeze and savour. Sarah, an amazing woman, sources from local organic farmers for a group of us.

A hug for my Mum who knits for charity despite having lost almost 80% of her sight. These are donated by various charities to the less fortunate, bedridden, orphaned or destitute in South Africa. I once shipped a large box of Mums knitted bed socks, beanies, baby clothes and other items to the UK, which were then trucked to Syria with many other supplies by an incredible relief agency privately run by an amazing woman. Mum knits strips which are then sewn together into blankets by volunteers. She sent me these photos and I hope you don’t mind my sharing. The labels say: Handmade with ❤.

I love my Mother.

And …

… Thank You for being here!