Local beloved plus overbold rosemary plus deep-fried garden egg equalise bliss .
We just finished up planting another row of eggplant in our garden so we wo n’t run out of them for Berenjenas La Taberna ( aka fried eggplant ) , a recipe served up by Katie Button , executive chef atCúrate , a tappa bar in Asheville , N.C. Button Colorado - have Cúrate with her husband Félix Meana , momma and dad , who each take active part in this flourish eating house . Her mouthwatering fry eggplant recipe ( sport below ) will , no doubt , be in her forthcoming cookbook to be released in 2016 .
On a late trip through Asheville , we had a chance to enjoy an unquestionable tapas meal , true to Meana ’s heritage rise up in a small township along Spain ’s Costa Brava . Together , Button and Meana have quite a talent for crafting a lively dining experience with their exposed eating place design , which permit you to see the Captain Cook in action over the stove , observe the wait staff mixing drinks and chat with other dining car at the saloon .
“ Just like in Spain , ” Meana affirms , as he couch the last touches on several of the more than 50 tapas on the fare . He serves as the potable and service music director , but when we take on him , he was lending a bridge player at the closing of the plating line .
For a eatery whose name mean “ heal yourself ” in Spanish , solid food is medicine . Button turns out small plates that are delicious and nourishing kit and boodle of graphics — and there ’s sight of grounds of the curative upshot of portion out estimable intellectual nourishment and wine with folk and friends here .
“ We ’re not a merger . We offer classic tapas , ” Button says , referring to the small , hot and cold plates of appetizers , often combined to make a repast . “ In provide farm - to - table culinary art , we did n’t want to turn a loss those link to Spanish tradition . It ’s about knowing where your product are made , lift or develop . Sometimes that ’s immediately local , like for our eggs . Other times , that stand for work with a farm in Spain that raises a 100 - percent pure Iberico pigs , acorn fattened and free range with 3 Accho allotted for each pig to stray . ”
At Cúrate , you could try the departure , and with this formula , you could replicate the tapa experience at domicile .
Recipe: Berenjenas La Taberna (Fried Eggplant with Rosemary and Honey)
Courtesy Katie Button , Cúrate Tapas Bar , Asheville , N.C.
Yield:4 servings
Ingredients
PreparationCut tops and bottoms off each eggplant and pare using vegetable peeler or knife . cut eggplants into 1/2 - inch - thick rounds ( about 12 piece from one medium - sized garden egg ) .
Put milk in large container or bowlful , and add eggplant as you slice up . practice plate to submerge eggplant in milk , if needed . Soak overnight in icebox .
The next sidereal day , waste pipe eggplant from the Milk River , dredge in flour and wiretap off excess flour .
heat up large fry pan with vegetable oil about 1 inch late until approximately 350 degrees F or when bead of piddle sizzles . free fall eggplant slice into crude , fix sure crude oil cover them , and electrocute until golden brown ( not too dark ) . Do not crowd eggplant slices when fry — electrocute one layer at a time because if fade overlap , they wo n’t electrocute equally . Flip eggplant slice during cook for even browning . For larger groups you’re able to do this footstep in slew . They should take about 2 to 3 minutes per side to turn golden brown .
Sprinkle each eggplant fade with pinch of salt when removed from frier . waste pipe on wire stand .
Drizzle honey onto fried eggplant slice while on the conducting wire rack , and top with two to three rosemary leaves . Serve at once .
impart these other appetizers to your formula boxful :
