Monday, August 08, 2011

Parmesan Risotto with Shrimp and Green Beans - August 8, 2011


For once, Richie is traveling for work this week while I'm home alone... usually it is the reverse! That means that you will see me preparing dishes with ingredients that I love, but my picky eater love does not! Tonight that is shrimp.

I've been wanting to try to make risotto for a while. I don't know a lot about it really, except that people are always getting sent home from Top Chef for making a bad risotto. Just the other night one of the contestants on the Next Food Network Star (yes, I am a food-related-reality-TV junkie!) was embarrassed by having none other than Wolfgang Puck take her to task for making a poor risotto and gave her an on the spot lesson.



I'm not sure what Chef Puck would have thought of my risotto, but my inexperienced palate thought it was tasty. I kept it very simple, basically following the recipe in The New Best Recipe book, but cut the portion in half since I was the only one eating it tonight. The ingredients were chicken broth, butter, onions, rice, white wine, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. I can see how people would screw it up as it requires lots of attention. Just one second seemed to elapse between it having plenty of liquid and being boiled dry.

To complete my meal, I pan seared some shrimp with salt and pepper, and threw in a few steamed green beans from the CSA for color and crunch. Simple, delicious!

Even though I cut the recipe in half, I still have some leftover. Considering experimenting with making arancini... Stay tuned!

1 comment:

Jess said...

I love making risotto. I find there is something so soothing about stirring the pot of rice on the stove. It's almost like meditation for me...I can quiet my mind and focus on the repetitive task at hand. I think that's why I like knitting too. I don't know whether or not my results would stand up to TV chef standards, but it always tastes good to me! Yours looks fabulous with those delicious shrimp and green beans.

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