Grilled Eggplant Risotto

"Serve with cherry-rich red: 2006 Chateau de La Chaize Brouilly. A healthy & vegetarian dish. For this super simple risotto, Chef Jonathan Justus, grills eggplant until smoky and charred & then blends the creamy flesh into the cooked rice. Just before serving he sprinkles on sumac, a tart Middle Easten spice made from the dried berry. Chef Jonathan Justus opened his Smithville, Missouri restaurant in his family's former drugstore last year (hence its name, James Drugstore). From F&W Magazine, 08/2008 - from "Green" Living Guide, Local Flavors."
 
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Ready In:
1hr 5mins
Ingredients:
16
Serves:
6
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ingredients

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directions

  • Light a grill.
  • Rub the eggplant with 1/2 tablespoon of the oil and grill over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until charred and soft, 20 minutes; let cool slightly.
  • Halve the eggplant lengthwise and scoop the pulp into a blender; puree until creamy.
  • In a large saucepan, melt the butter in the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.
  • Add the onion, shallot, garlic and rice and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until fragrant, 5 minutes.
  • Add the wine and cook until it is absorbed.
  • Add the vegetable stock with crushed red pepper flakes, 1/2 cup at a time; stir constantly until it is absorbed before adding more.
  • Cook until the rice is al dente, 20 minutes total.
  • Stir in the eggplant puree and the cream and season with salt and pepper.
  • Stir in the parsley and scallions.
  • Spoon the risotto into bowls, sprinkle with sumac and serve.

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Reviews

  1. This was an excellent way to serve eggplant, especially for those that might be reluctant to eat eggplant. I will definitely make it again.
     
  2. We liked this risotto. It was an interesting change-up from our typical risotto recipes. We made no modifications to the ingredients or cooking instructions. I enjoyed grated parmesan cheese over mine. Thanks!
     
  3. This recipe tasted so good that I can't wait to make it again! I had to make a few changes which included: baking the eggplant because I don't have a grill, and because I didn't have any shallots or sumac, I substituted more onions for shallots and paprika for sumac. (I considered adding lemon juice in place of sumac but I didn't want to risk having the cream curdle.)
     
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Tweaks

  1. This recipe tasted so good that I can't wait to make it again! I had to make a few changes which included: baking the eggplant because I don't have a grill, and because I didn't have any shallots or sumac, I substituted more onions for shallots and paprika for sumac. (I considered adding lemon juice in place of sumac but I didn't want to risk having the cream curdle.)
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for&nbsp;it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love &amp; beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha &amp; my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I&nbsp;was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations &amp; a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree &amp; wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)&gt;&nbsp;</p> <p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&amp;R Block and worked simultaneously&nbsp;as a Supervisor in 2 offices&nbsp;for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry />&nbsp;All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba &amp; Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old &amp; used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted &amp; was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw &amp; from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p> <p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private&nbsp;bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic!&nbsp;<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket&nbsp;my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile />&nbsp;Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor &amp; the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p> <p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>
 
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