Canarian · Starter · From the menu Huerta
Charred aubergine, onion, bread
Berenjena a la brasa, cebolla, pan
A whole aubergine burnt black over flame until it collapses, the smoky flesh drained and dressed and spooned over grilled bread with slow onions. The dish that opens the Huerta menu, and the one people ask about most.
Two honest notes. The onions take forty-five minutes, not the ten or fifteen you will read in most places. That number is well documented and the shortcuts that beat it all involve either constant attention to a single onion or a pinch of bicarbonate. Budget the time. And the dressing is my own: of six published versions of this dish, cumin appears in one and sherry vinegar in none, because everyone else finishes with lemon or pomegranate molasses. I prefer it this way, but it is a departure and not a tradition.
Ingredients
- 3 large aubergines
- 2 large onions, sliced thin
- 4 tbsp olive oil, plus more to finish
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1½ tsp cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
- 6 thick slices sourdough or country bread
- Flaked salt and black pepper
- A handful of flat parsley, chopped
Method
- Start the onions first, because they will outlast everything else. Cook them in the olive oil over a medium-low heat with a good pinch of salt, stirring regularly, for about 45 minutes until sweet, soft and the colour of weak tea. If you want it faster, one onion at medium-high with your full attention will get there in under half an hour, and a pinch of bicarbonate will too, but a real batch cooked plainly takes three quarters of an hour.
- Put the aubergines directly on a gas flame. Turn them every few minutes for 12 to 15 minutes until the skin is black and split all over and the aubergine has deflated completely. On a griddle or a barbecue it takes 20 to 35 minutes; under a grill, up to an hour. The flame is the only method any of these cooks actually prefers.
- You are looking for blackened and collapsed, not grey and ashy.
- Move them to a bowl, cover, and leave 10 to 15 minutes. The steam finishes the cooking and loosens the skin.
- Peel them and pull the flesh into strands with your fingers rather than chopping it. Pull out the dense lines of seeds, which carry the bitterness.
- Drain the flesh in a sieve for at least 30 minutes. The liquid it gives up is bitter, and this is going onto toast, so it cannot be wet.
- Dress it by hand with the vinegar, garlic, cumin, a good glug of olive oil, salt and pepper. Do not put it in a processor; it turns runny. Taste. It should be smoky first and sour second.
- Grill the bread hard on both sides. Spoon the onions on, then the aubergine, then more oil, salt and parsley.
Serve it with. A cold dry white and nothing else. It is a first course and it should stay light.