Eggplant 🍆 Manjar || Flavors of the Memory

Boronia is a word of Arabic origin that means delicacy, and this dish is known as Eggplant Boronia or just Boronia.

La Boronia es una palabra de origen árabe que significa manjar, y a este plato se le conoce como Boronia de Berenjena o solo Boronia.

From a very young age, my paternal grandmother was in charge of my food and that of the house, she had a unique ingenuity for cooking. I had no idea what this dish was called, the truth was that the main base was eggplant and plantain and she used it as a garnish for lunch. She knew a lot of tricks if she was still alive I think she would really enjoy watching recipes on YouTube or maybe TV channels although I'm sure she would say that's not how you do it 😂😂😂 because she was amazing she knew a lot about preparing variety of dishes.

Desde muy pequeña quien estuvo a cargo de mi comida y la de la casa fue mi abuela paterna, ella tenia un ingenio único para cocinar. Yo no tenía idea de cómo se llamaba este plato lo cierto era que la base principal era la berenjena y el plátano y ella lo utilizaba como contorno para el almuerzo. Ella sabía muchos trucos si viviera aún creo que disfrutaría mucho de ver recetas por YouTube o tal vez canales de TV aunque estoy segura que diría eso no se hace así 😂😂😂 porque era increíble conocía mucho de la preparación de variedad de platillos.

^{The plate in the image is a piece of a complete set of dishes that my grandmother brought from Colombia in 1985 when she arrived in Venezuela. We still have many of the pieces of that dinnerware.}

My mom for some time is growing at home and a neighbor gave her a little eggplant tree, well after a few months the tree is full of eggplants 😳 in fact the first ones were damaged because my mom and I for cooking are lousy.

Mi mamá desde hace un tiempo está cultivando en casa y una vecina le regaló un arbolito de berenjena, pues luego de unos meses el árbol está repleto de berenjenas 😳 de hecho las primeras se dañaron porque mi mamá y yo para la cocina somos pésimas.

^{Part of the crops that my mother has in the backyard of the house, the most predominant are banana plants, some cassava and cambures. We are amazed how the eggplant plant has produced so many vegetables. Chili peppers are the favorite ingredient in the house when it comes to stews, they bring a lot of flavor.}

We decided to google the recipe my grandmother used to make in order to use the harvest we had and we didn't even know the name, we consulted with my dad and he gave us the name, once we located the recipe none of them looked like the one my grandmother used to make. We had to reconstruct it through my mom's, my dad's and my own memories.

Decidimos googlear la receta que hacía mi abuela para así darle uso a la cosecha que teníamos y ni el nombre lo sabíamos, lo consultamos con mi papá y él nos dio el nombre, una vez que ubicamos la receta ninguna se parecía como la hacia mi abuela. Tuvimos que reconstruirla a través de recuerdos de mi mamá, papá y míos.

And we did it...

Y lo logramos...

Eggplant Boronia or Eggplant Manjar

Which according to me she called it Mota.

Boronia de Berenjena o Manjar de Berenjena

Que según yo ella le decía Mota.

Ingredients

03 eggplants
03 yellow plantains
1/2 carrot
1 1/2 round white onion
1 small green bell pepper
1/2 large red bell pepper
08 chili peppers
03 tomatoes
01 large clove of garlic

Ingredientes

03 Berenjenas

03 plátanos amarillos

1/2 zanahoria

1 1/2 cebolla redonda blanca

1 pimentón verde pequeño

1/2 pimentón rojo grande

08 ajíes

03 tomates

01 diente grande de ajo

^{In this image the bananas were missing, they were in the fridge and I forgot to take them out. However, they together with the eggplant are the base of this dish.}

We begin

Comenzamos

1- The first and most important step is to toast, in this case burn the eggplant shell, for this I turned on the stove and placed the eggplant directly on it.

1- El primer paso y más importante es tostar, en este caso quemar la concha de la berenjena, para esto encendí la estufa y coloque directamente la berenjena.

^{This step, which is the most important, was remembered by my mother, I don't know why I had in my mind that my grandmother placed them on the budare. The truth is that by doing this you can smoke the eggplant and also burn the shell so that it is easy to peel it and take advantage of all the vegetable. Of course this way the eggplant is cooked.}

I turned it around until the shell was black, I removed it when I saw that the shell opened. It smelled smoky. I did this step with the three eggplants. Then I placed them in a bowl.

Fuí dándole vueltas, hasta que la concha quedara negra, la retiré al ver que la concha abrió. Olía a ahumado. Este paso lo hice con las tres berenjenas. Luego las coloque en un recipiente.

^{Ok, the budare is something round, it can be made of aluminum, it is like a griddle where we grill the arepas and anything else we need (chicken, meat, toast bread) 😂.}

2- I started cutting the carrot into very small squares, and I did the same with the rest of the vegetables. I left them in a bowl.

2- Empecé a cortar la zanahoria en cuadritos muy pequeños, y así mismo hice con el resto de los vegetales. Los dejé en un recipiente.

^{This way ordered by colors is my mom's thing, she is very clever in the kitchen when it comes to cutting vegetables. She loves that they have all the colors.}

3- I removed the peel from the plantains, cut them into small pieces and put them in a pot with water. Let them boil on the stove.

3- Le retire la concha a los plátanos los corte pequeños y los coloque en una olla con agua. Deje que hirvieran en la cocina.

4- Take the eggplants and remove all the toasted shell and leave them without skin. Reserve them in a bowl.

4- Tome las berenjenas y quite toda la concha tostada y las dejé sin piel. Las reserve en un recipiente.

5- When the plantains were cooked, I took a fork and mashed them, I included the eggplants and continued mashing the eggplants with the plantain. Until you get a puree with both things.

5- Al estar cocidos los plátanos, tomé un tenedor y triture, le incluí las berenjenas y seguí triturando las berenjenas con el plátano. Hasta lograr un puré con ambas cosas.

6- In a frying pan pour a little oil and add the carrots for a little more than a minute, then add the rest of the chopped vegetables that I had reserved. I sautéed them all and added a little apple cider vinegar, salt, rosemary, and black pepper. Lower the heat and let it cook for a few minutes so that the vegetables would release their juices and a sauce would form.

6- En un sartén verti un poco de aceite y adicione las zanahorias por un poco más de un minuto, luego coloque el resto de las verduras cortadas que tenía reservadas. Hice un sofrito con todas y le coloque un poquito de vinagre de manzana, sal, romero, y pimienta negra. Baje el fuego y deje cocinar por unos minutos para que las verduras soltaran jugo y se formara una salsa.

^{You can season it to taste, my grandmother for example only used salt, onoto for color and a touch of black pepper. I added others because I had them at home and to enhance flavor but it is not relevant.}

7- To finish, add the mashed plantain + eggplant to the pan and mix with the vegetables.

7- Para finalizar integre el puré de plátano + berenjena al sartén y mezcle con los vegetales.

^Source

^{I accompanied the Boronia with a beef stew, left over from the day before and it was the perfect complement.}

^{A very colorful food with a smooth texture, very similar to mashed potatoes.}

This is an excellent option to eat eggplant, the truth is that Eggplant Boronia is exquisite 🍆 it is a typical dish of the Colombian coast, my grandmother was from Santa Marta as well as my Dad.

Esta es una excelente opción para comer berenjena, la verdad es que es exquisita la Boronia de Berenjena 🍆 es un plato típico de la costa Colombiana, mi abuela era de Santa Marta al igual que mi Papá.

He tells me that this dish was made by the very poor people of the coastal regions a long time ago, and with it they substituted proteins.

El me cuenta que ese plato lo hacían las personas muy pobres de las regiones de la costa hace mucho tiempo, y con eso sustituian las proteínas.

My dad tells me that my grandmother's step of placing the eggplant directly on the stove was done by placing them on the grill.

Mi papá me comenta que el paso que mi abuela hacia de colocar la berenjena directo en la estufa lo hacían colocándolas a la brasa.

Nowadays it is a delicious dish that everyone enjoys in the Colombian coast.

Actualmente es un plato delicioso que todos disfrutan en la costa Colombiana.

I invite you to try it, a healthy and delicious dish. An ingenious and different way to enjoy new flavors.

Los invito a que intente hacerlo, un platillo saludable y delicioso. Una manera ingeniosa y diferente para disfrutar nuevos sabores.

¡Saludos mPB!

^{Derechos Reservados®️ 2020

Imágenes propiedad de @pcojines}

Eggplant 🍆 Manjar || Flavors of the Memory

And we did it...

Y lo logramos...

Eggplant Boronia or Eggplant Manjar

Boronia de Berenjena o Manjar de Berenjena

Ingredients

Ingredientes

We begin

Comenzamos

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