The 21st Century Housewife's Lemon Shrimp Risotto

As it is Friday, I thought I would post a fish recipe. This one is easy enough for a weeknight, but special enough for a dinner party - just the kind of recipe I like! 

Risotto has a reputation for being tricky to prepare, but it is very undeserved. Although risotto is a very hands-on dish, it isn’t difficult and only takes about a half hour in total to make. It is lovely with fresh vegetables from the garden or market in the summer, and in the depths of winter you can always use frozen green vegetables in it. I use thawed cooked shrimp in this recipe - they can be big ones or little ones - both are delicious!

The quantities below serve 3 to 4 people as a main course.

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 cup risotto rice

1 glass of white wine (optional)

(Please don’t use ‘cooking wine’ - better to leave it out - only wine you’d want to drink from a glass.)

4 to 5 cups chicken stock

the juice of half a lemon

2 cups green vegetables cut in bite size pieces (green beans, asparagus, peas, whatever you have to hand)

2 cups frozen cooked shrimp, thawed

(please buy line caught, sustainably fished seafood)

2 to 3 tablespoons light cream of half and half

In a large saucepan, melt the butter of medium heat. Add the risotto rice and stir to coat with the butter. Cook for a minute or two, but don’t allow the rice to brown. Stir in the glass of white wine, if using, and continue to stir until it has been absorbed by the rice. Then gradually add the stock (if you don’t use the wine you may need a bit more stock), stirring until it is absorbed after each addition.

Just before the last addition of stock, toss in the green vegetables so that they can be cooked to tender crisp with the risotto. When the stock is all absorbed and the rice is al dente, stir in the shrimp and the lemon juice. Heat through, and then stir in the cream or half and half.

Serve in warmed bowls with a basket of hot rolls or crusty bread for folks to help themselves to on the side. 

The 21st Century Housewife’s© Risotto Primavera

This is a wonderful recipe for this time of year, and with the exception of the asparagus, you may well have most of the ingredients to hand already. It's a great recipe for Earth Day as well as it is totally meat free, and if you use local produce it has a very small carbon footprint. (Just remember that if you are catering for strict vegetarians you need to be sure to use vegetarian cheese.) Speaking of cheese, you can use whatever kind you wish, from Gruyere to Parmesan. However, for me, the sharp tang of cheddar cheese against the soft creamy bite of the rice and gently cooked spring vegetables really make this dish. It’s a bit unexpected to use cheddar in Italian cooking, but the results are fantastic.

Risotto is definitely a hands on dish, something that has to be watched and stirred almost constantly. The finished dish is well worth the effort though and like Nigella Lawson, I do highly recommend the benefits of a little mindless repetitive stirring, particularly if you are feeling stressed (which I am this week with my son still stuck in Athens due to the volcanic ash cloud over Europe). Stirring is bizarrely reassuring, plus you get to serve and eat delicious comfort food as a result of your labours. So it is a good deal all round!

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
320 grams of risotto rice (Arborio, Carnaroli or Vialone)
1 glass dry white wine
1 litre of vegetable stock (I made mine from cubes)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup of frozen peas
a couple of good handfuls of asparagus spears, each one cut in two to three pieces and lightly steamed for two to three minutes
1 handful of grated cheddar cheese

Take the peas out of the freezer, measure out one cupful and leave them on the side to thaw out a bit. Heat the oil over medium heat in a saute pan or fairly deep frying pan (in a pinch you can use a large saucepan for this as well). Gently saute the onion until it is beginning to soften, but not brown. Stir in the risotto rice until it is well mixed with the onion and coated with oil.

Pour in the glass of wine and stir gently until it is absorbed. Now you can begin adding the stock, a few ladles full at a time, stirring each one in until it is absorbed. This will take at least fifteen to twenty minutes. Don’t be tempted to crank up the heat too much, you have to be patient with this dish. When cooking risotto the burner should never be turned up beyond medium heat.

As soon as the last ladleful of stock has been absorbed, turn the heat back a bit and stir in the cheese and the frozen peas until the cheese has melted. After a couple of minutes gently stir in the already steamed asparagus.

That’s it, you are good to go. This is not the most calorie conscious suggestion I have ever made, but we love this served with fresh bread or hot rolls in our house. However, if you are being healthy, a crisp fresh salad makes a great side dish. Having said that, risotto is perfectly fine eaten all by itself from a bowl while you are curled up in front of the television, yet it’s also good enough to serve at the most formal dinner party as a starter (in which case this would serve six easily). I hope you enjoy it as much as we do in our house!

The 21st Century Housewife's© Leek and Ham Risotto with Cherry Tomatoes

This recipe is delicious – perfect comfort food for this time of year – and you probably have most of the ingredients for it already in your store-cupboard and freezer. In fact, it is a great way to use up any leftover ham you might still have tucked away in the freezer after the Holidays. If by any chance you don’t have any ham left, just buy a thick slice from the deli counter and chop it up. Don’t worry if cherry tomatoes are too pricey or not available. You can either chop ordinary tomatoes up finely and use them instead.

Risotto does require pretty much constant attention and stirring, but not much effort, and as it only takes about twenty minutes or so to make. This is why it is one of my favorite quick and easy dinners. Risotto is quite rich, so servings do not need to be all that big (in fact this recipe wills serve at least four hungry adults). You don’t really need to serve anything with this, although I’m sure no one would complain if you served some nice hot rolls or a small green salad alongside it.

2 tbsp butter
3-4 leeks, thinly sliced and washed and drained thoroughly
2 cups Arborio or other risotto rice
1 glass white wine
1 litre hot chicken stock
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup cooked ham, chopped in bite sized pieces
¼ cup light cream

Melt the butter over low to medium heat in a large frying pan. Add the leeks and sauté until they begin to soften. Add the rice and stir to coat with the buttery leek mixture. Cook for a minute or so, but don’t let the rice start to brown at all. (Turn the heat down a bit if it starts to do that.)

Add the white wine and stir in until it absorbs. Now add the stock gradually, stirring after each addition until absorbed. Once you have added all the stock, the rice should be cooked, but still “al dente”, with just a little bit of bite.

Stir in the peas, cherry tomatoes, ham and cream. Cook, stirring pretty much constantly, until the cream has absorbed and the peas, tomatoes and ham are heated through.

Serve on warmed plates.