Beignets d’aubergine

Name: Beignets d’aubergine
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: about 2 litres (3½ pints/2 quarts) vegetable oil, for deep-frying; 8 baby aubergines (eggplants), quartered or 2 large aubergines (eggplants), sliced; salt and pepper; 160 ml (5½ fl oz/⅔ cup) ice-cold sparkling water; 50 g (1¾ oz/6 tbsp) cornflour (cornstarch); 50 g (1¾ oz/6 tbsp) potato flour (potato starch); 50 g (1¾ oz/6 tbsp) rice flour

Aubergine (eggplant) beignets

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Classic Koffmann

By Pierre Koffmann

Published 2016

About

A beignet is simply the French term for anything that’s coated in a batter and deep-fried. Aubergines (eggplants) hold a lot of water so double-frying them ensures the coating is really crisp and doesn’t get softened by the moisture from the vegetable. Beignets need to be eaten hot, ideally straight out of the pan.

Ingredients

8 baby aubergines (eggplants), quartered or 2 large aubergines (eggplants), sliced
about 2 litres

Method

Prepare the batter. Add a little seasoning to the cornflour (cornstarch) and potato flour (potato starch), then place them in a large mixing bowl. Add the sparkling water and lightly mix until just combined. Leaving the batter a little lumpy will make it crunchy and light. Pat the aubergine (eggplant) pieces dry with kitchen paper, then roll them in the batter.

Heat the oil in a large,