Beer Battered Aubergine with a Lemon Tahini Dip

First of all I have to say that we had the most amazing Easter dinner! No, no, not a big plate of deep fried veg - although I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up to that! No - I made one of my favourite dishes from Veganomicon, the Eggplant Rollatini over spaghetti with the olive marinara sauce. BUT instead of filling it with their tofu basil ricotta like last time I made my baked almond feta with some fresh basil stirred in. Now, I love this dish with the tofu basil ricotta but it really was amazing with that basil almond feta inside!! I served them over spaghetti with the olive marinara recipe in Veganomicon and my garlic bread on the side and of course, champagne. It was a simply stunning meal. A massive production of course so something to do for special occasions but if you have Veganomicon do give it a try - especially with the almond feta. :-)

Now, that brings me to this post. I think the only time I buy Aubergine is when I make that Eggplant Rollatini so I don't have it in the house much. Why I don't know as I love it, but there you go. So I had some left over and just couldn't resist using my beer batter from the zucchini sticks post and making these. They turned out absolutely delicious, just as good as the zucchini sticks and a great way to have aubergine. As for the dip, I loved the ranch dip I made to go with the zucchini and it would have gone great with this but I didn't have the ingredients so thought the Lemon Tahini dressing from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks would go nice. A lovely side but I also loved just dipping them into tofutti sour cream, and truthfully, they were great without a dip too.

These were so good it also got me thinking that the beer batter would be good with anything and as I had some batter left decided to fry up some whole mushrooms:

These also turned out beautiful and I liked these again with tofutti sour cream but also with my vegan 'honey' mustard mayo dip (the one I cannot eat vegan fish fingers without!). So basically, this batter would be good with probably any veg and there are a vast selection of dips you can use as well. Win win!

Beer Battered Aubergine:

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 cup vegan lager

Vegetable oil for frying

Whisk 1 cup of the flour with the beer in a large bowl until smooth. Pour through a sieve into another bowl and let sit for 1 hour. 

Meanwhile cut the aubergine into slices then in half. You need to have skin on each one.  Place in a strainer and generously sprinkle with salt. Leave for about half an hour. Rinse well then pat dry. Heat the oil in a large pot - you want about 3 - 4 inches of oil until quite hot (360F if you have a thermometer) I didn't have one but found the oil needed to be hot - it was on maximum the whole time.

Combine the remaining 1/2 cup of flour with some salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Coat the aubergine slices shaking off any excess flour. Give the batter a good whisk then dip the sticks in the batter letting excess drip off. Carefully drop into the hot oil in batches and fry until crisp and golden brown. Remove and let drain on paper towels. 

For the mushrooms simply brush off any dirt and coat them in flour then into the batter. Fry till crisp and golden.

As I couldn't decide which dip I liked best with these, here are a selection for you!

Lemon Tahini Dip:

1/2 clove garlic, minced

2 Tbsp tahini

zest of 1/2 lemon

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp hot water

Source: 101 Cookbooks

Vegan Honey Mustard Mayo:

1 Tbsp vegan mayo - I use Plamil

1/2 tsp French's mustard

1/2 tsp light agave syrup

Vegan Ranch Style Dip:

1/2 cup vegan mayo (I used plamil)

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp plain soy yogurt

2 Tbsp vegan sour cream

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper (I used 1/8 tsp)

1/8 tsp onion powder

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1/16th tsp dried thyme

fresh dill, about a Tbsp, just eye ball it

Instructions are the same for each dip, simply whisk all together! The ranch one you'll want well chilled however. The other two are good to go :-)

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