This is my favourite way to eat aubergine. It’s tasty, crispy and incredibly easy to make. It also goes really well with a martini.

You will need:

• An air fryer
• An aubergine (eggplant)
• Cornflour (cornstarch)
• Oil to spray
• Seasoning (optional)
• Dipping sauce (soy sauce, vinegar, ponzu etc – this is also optional but really enhances the dish)

Wash the aubergine then cut the ends off.

Use a peeler to remove some, but not all of the skin. You can completely peel it if you like but leaving a few bits of skin leaves the finished dish with just a little bit more bite without it being too tough.

Slice the aubergine lengthways then cut each half into rough wedges. Normally I like my food to be bitesized. This is definitely the case for martini food because you only want to need one hand for the food while the other hand holds onto the glass. With these, however, I like them bigger than bitesize when you prepare them. They shrink slightly during the cooking process.

Sit them in a bowl and cover them in cold water. I sit a chopping board or another dish over the bowl to hold the aubergine down and make sure it’s mostly submerged. This helps remove bitterness from the flesh.

After 20 minutes drain the aubergine. You don’t need to dry it off. It’s okay for it to be damp. Toss it in cornflour until it’s well coated.

You can toss in some seasoning as well if you want. I like to use a mixture of salt and crushed Sichuan pepper (similar to what you might get if you ordered ‘Chinese salt and pepper’).

Preheat your air fryer at 200°C (390°F) for 5 minutes, then spray with oil. Spray the aubergine with oil as well then spread evenly around the inside of the pan.

Cook for 4-5 minutes then check, stir/shake the aubergine to stop it from sticking then put it back in to continue cooking. Repeat after another 4-5 minutes.

At this stage it might be ready, or it might need another 2-5 minutes. Keep going until it’s roughly browned and crunchy.

While the aubergine is cooking you might want to prepare a dipping sauce. I like a half-and-half mixture of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Ponzu is also very good. They both balance saltiness with acidity which goes very well with the oil and gooey crunch of the Aubergine.

When the aubergine is ready, dish it up and be prepared to eat it fast. The heat and the crunch can both fade very fast.

Dip the aubergine in the sauce and eat! I used chopsticks because it’s easier for me to use one-handed, thus freeing my other hand up for my glass.

This dish goes very well with a martini – in particular a Gibson martini, with its acid sweetness cutting very nicely through the aubergine.

I would recommend playing around with different seasonings for the aubergine. Sichuan pepper is my favourite but there are lots of other potential flavours you could add at the same stage as the cornflour such as chilli powder or garlic powder.

If you have any other suggestions, leave a comment below!