Weeknight Risotto

One day BP II and I were wandering around Whole Paycheck and there was a sale on Arborio rice which is perfect for risotto. I had leftover shrimp from the shrimp and orzo dish I made a bit ago and decided that a shrimp risotto would be a nice weeknight meal. I have actually never made a risotto and was excited to try it out. I used the basic recipe from my Mark Bittman book and risotto does not require a lot, actually most ingredients are in your cupboard. But boy is it a lot of work. I stood over my hot stove for 30 minutes constantly stirring this rice plus the heat from my 400° oven. It was HOT!. Towards the end, my arm was quite fatigued. But the end result was very yummy and well worth the heat and fatigue. I will definitely make this again and what is nice, is that you can just throw anything in at the end. Leftover veggies or maybe some herbs and cheese, lots of things you can do with this basic recipe. You can even use it as an upper arm workout.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups of Arborio rice
4-6 cups of chicken broth
3 TBL of butter
1 med onion, chopped
½ cup of white wine
½ pound of raw shrimp
1 TBL olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Place shrimp on a baking sheet and drizzle will olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 400° and set aside.

Heat a Dutch oven to medium heat and add 2 TBL of butter. When melted add onion and sweat until soft, about 4 minutes. Next add rice and stir until rice becomes glossy and is well coated with the butter/ onion mixture. Add ½ cup of white wine and stir until evaporated.

Next, add 1 ladle full of chicken broth and stir constantly or rice will stick to the bottom. Once first ladle is evaporated add another. Continue to do this for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes stat to taste the rice, keep adding ladles of chicken broth until the rice is soft on the outside but still maintains a bit on the inside.

After the rice has been cooking for about 10 minutes, pop the shrimp in the 400° oven for 10 minutes. The shrimp should be pink and have a slight browning to them when done.

When rice reached desired consistency, still in last tablespoon of butter and season with salt and pepper. Finally, add the shrimp to the rice and stir to incorporate. Serve immediately.