Aubergine and Lemon Risotto - Charlotte style

This recipe is based on Yotan Ottolenghi's fabulous recipe but with a few vital alterations/additions...

Day 1 - Preparations
Preheat the oven to high. Place one aubergine on a tray and cook at 200 for about an hour. Remove from the oven, cut a slit lengthways in the aubergine and scoop out the soft flesh, avoiding most of the burnt skin. Roughly chop the flesh and put in a bowl. I usually do this the night before, when I’m soaking the lentils.

To soak the lentils, boil the kettle, measure out half a mug of dried puy lentils. Put these into a medium sized bowl and pour in enough boiling water to cover lentils 3 times over. Squirt in a little lemon juice and cover. Leave this over night to soak.

Day 2 - The feast
Drain the lentils and wash them in cold water.

Cut the second aubergine into chunky cubes. Steam for about 20 mins and then put to the side

Heat a splash of olive oil in a heavy based pan the fry the onion slowly. Add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes. Turn up the heat and add the rice add more oil in necessary. Add the wine and cook for 3 minutes more.

Add the lentils then pour in the stock. Add the mushrooms, courgettes and some lemon juice and zest and continue to stir all the while, until all the stock has been used up - this will take 10-15 minutes.

Test and make sure rice is cooked properly. If ready remove the pot from the heat, add the lemon juice, half the zest, the aubergine pulp and half a teaspoon of salt. Stir, cover and leave for five minutes. Taste and add more salt if you like and some black pepper.

Add the steamed diced aubergine to a wok generously oiled with sesame oil, give this a quick 5 minute blast and then take off the heat.

To serve, spoon the risotto into bowls and sprinkle with the diced aubergine, Parmesan, basil and the rest of the lemon zest and serve with quarter of a lemon. Leave the basil in the middle of the table, and extra lemon juice for taste.

It was so delicious we forgot to take a photo of the finished dish so I’ll add this next time I make it!!

Ingredients
2 medium aubergines
10 medium mushrooms quartered
Courgette chunky sliced
Splash of olive oil
Glug of sesame oil
2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed or garlic puree if you’re feeling lazy
100g risotto rice
½ a mug of puy lentils, these need to be put in a bowl and soaked in water over night (water should be boiled to start with), add a squirt of lemon juice for soaking.
Glass of white wine
750ml hot vegetable stock
2 tbsp lemon juice
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Coarse sea salt and black pepper
Parmesan (or other mature hard cheese), grated
Basil plant!