[Sca-cooks] What's going on here?

[Vincent Cuenca]

As part of the initial planning for this feast, I was monkeying around with
a recipe from Cariadoc's Miscellany this weekend, and I'm not quite sure
what happened.  The recipe is as follows:

Recipe of Eggplant Pancakes

al-Andalusi p. C-5

Get sweet eggplant and boil it with water and salt until it becomes well
cooked and is dissolved or falling apart. You should drain the water, crush
and stir it on a dish with crumbs of grated bread, eggs beaten with oil,
dried coriander and cinnamon; beat it until all becomes equal. Afterwards
fry cakes made with this batter in a frying pan with oil until they are
gilded. Make a sauce of vinegar, oil, almori, and mashed garlic; give all
this a shaking and pour it over the top.

Sounds tasty, don't it?  Here's the redaction from Cariadoc's site:

1 large eggplant (1 lb 3 oz)
~2 qts water
~2 t salt
1/2 c bread crumbs
2-3 eggs
1 T oil
1 1/4 t coriander
1 1/2 t cinnamon
2 T vinegar
2 T oil
2 t murri
2 large clove garlic
about 6 T oil for frying

Peel and quarter eggplant, boil 30 minutes. Drain, mash and mix with bread
crumbs, eggs, oil, coriander and cinnamon. Crush garlic in a garlic press
and mix up sauce. Fry in oil at medium high, about 1-2 minutes a side. Pour
sauce over pancakes before serving.

Instead of boiling the eggplants, I salted them, let them sit for a while,
then rinsed them and nuked them.  I used 2 large eggs, subbed cheap soy
sauce for the murri, but otherwise followed the instructions.

The pancakes wouldn't hold together.  Even on a nonstick pan, they acted
more like a souffle.  I couldn't turn them or even scrape them up without
their falling apart.  I ended up scrambling them.  They were light, fluffy
and delicious, but not pancakes.

Should I have used more eggs?  Added more breadcrumbs to stiffen the
mixture?  Whatcha think?  They're really good, and I'd like to be able to
serve them at the feast.

Thanks,

Vicente




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If you get into a jam, you can always eat something, blow something up or
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