Espana, por flavour

Reliving travel experiences through food keeps the memories and the travel bug alive, so when our companions from a recent trip asked us to a Spanish-themed lunch, it took me back to our shared visit to Spain.

Spanish desserts reflect the country's Islamic history, dominated by the tastes of North Africa, with almonds, honey, syrupy sugar, fresh and dried fruits. Alongside this are custard-based desserts, often infused with orange. With orange trees planted in most home courtyards and a popular street tree, it's little wonder they're a Spanish favourite.

Panchineta, a traditional Basque dessert of Islamic origin, is a custard-based pastry cream pie that bewitched me in Barcelona, so it seemed only right I revive it for our lunch party.

Although this dessert appears complicated, it's very simple and elegant and can be served warm or cold. Make the pastry cream first, preferably the day before, and refrigerate it overnight. The pie is best served on the day it's made. I tweaked the traditional recipe a little by adding slightly more cornflour and I baked it in a glass pie dish rather than on a baking sheet. This was mostly to avoid the custard messing up my clean oven.

I served it with an orange ice-cream made with sour cream to offset the richness of the tart.

With eggplant season just around the corner, today's Spanish fried-eggplant dish is a great way to serve eggplant especially to people who think they don't like it. Berenjenas fritas con miel, a tapa found throughout the south of Spain, turns this ordinary vegetable into succulent comfort food.

Fried eggplant with honey

1 large eggplant

2 cups milk

¼⁄ cup cornflour

4 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp good-quality honey

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

sea salt and cracked pepper

Peel the eggplant and slice into half-centimetre rounds.

Place the eggplant slices into an airtight container and cover with milk.

Cover and refrigerate overnight or for a few hours.

In a shallow bowl, mix the cornflour with a teaspoon of salt. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a medium frypan over medium to high heat. Line a plate with a paper towel.

When the oil is hot, dredge the eggplant slices in the cornflour and tap off the excess. Gently place a few slices at a time in the frypan, cooking for about two to three minutes a side or until golden. Remove and place on the paper towel to drain.

Repeat with the remaining slices of eggplant, adding more oil to the frypan as needed.

Sprinkle the eggplant with a little sea salt and cracked pepper, then drizzle with honey and sprinkle with thyme.

This can be served as tapas, a dessert or as a side dish to a main meal.

Panchineta, Spanish cream pie

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, defrosted

120g ground almonds

150g castor sugar

1 tbsp butter

5 egg yolks

½⁄ cup cornflour

1 litre full cream milk

1 cinnamon stick

peel of 1 orange, in a continuous peel

1 egg (extra) and 2 tbsp milk whisked together

200g raw hazelnuts, or other nuts, chopped

1 tbsp raw sugar

icing sugar for dusting

Whisk together the ground almonds and sugar in an electric mixer until they form a paste. Add the butter and continue beating for about five minutes. Add the egg yolks, one by one, mixing until combined. Add the cornflour and mix well for 30 seconds.

Add a little of the milk to the mixture while the mixer is off to loosen the mix, then whisk together on a low setting, adding the remainder of the milk slowly.

Pour the custard mixture into a large, heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat, adding the cinnamon stick and orange peel. Mix constantly with a hand whisk to keep the custard moving over the heat and stop it sticking and forming lumps. It should cook to a thick custard consistency. Remove from the heat immediately, pour into a dish and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for a minimum of three hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

When the custard is cooled, remove it from the fridge. Fish out the cinnamon stick and orange peel and discard. On a floured benchtop roll out the puff pastry sheets, so they are slightly larger to fit the base and top of a greased, 24-centimetre round pie dish. Place the rolled base pastry sheet into the dish, pressing to fit. Trim the edges with a sharp knife leaving an extra, small margin to allow for shrinkage. Paint around the edges of the pastry base with the egg and milk wash so the top pastry sheet will stick to it. Spoon the custard evenly on to the pastry base and place the remaining pastry sheet over the custard, pushing down on the edges to stick to the bottom pastry sheet.

Trim the edges of the top sheet. Using a fork, crimp down the edges of the pastry all the way around the top. Make a few slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

Paint the top of the pie with the remaining egg and milk wash and sprinkle heavily with the chopped nuts and raw sugar.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden, checking the pie does not burn. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for half an hour before slicing. Dust liberally with icing sugar.

The panchineta is good with tart orange ice-cream and pedro ximenez sherry.

>>Debbie Skelton is a Canberra food writer, debsravingrecipes.blogspot.com