Lemon and Aubergine Risotto

18th July 2016

Salted aubergine is still one of my favourite vegetables so I was looking forward to trying this.

First, one aubergine was pierced and put under the grill for close to an hour, until the flesh had shrunk away from the skin. The second aubergine was chopped into cubes and fried until golden. These were then drained in a colander and salted.

Next was the risotto. An onion was diced and fried until golden brown. A little garlic paste was stirred in. The arborio rice was added to the pan and vegetable stock stirred in a little at a time until soaked up.

The grilled aubergine was defleshed and also salted. This was chopped and stirred into the risotto along with the aubergine cubes and zest from two lemons. Finally chopped basil and a small amount of grated cheese was stirred in as the last of the liquid was absorbed.

This was actually a lot lemonier than I was expecting but worked surprisingly well with the aubergine.