Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto

I am a huge fan of risotto, and will typically order a seafood risotto dish if it is on special at a restaurant. However, I was always afraid to try cooking it myself. I heard horror stories about how long and labor-intensive the process was, and that was enough to scare me off. That is, until my husband asked me to make him risotto for a special occasion. Challenge, accepted.

I looked up a recipe online, and it didn't sound too terrible. I went to the grocery store and bought some arborio rice - I crossed my fingers that I could successfully make this dish, because otherwise I was stuck with a huge, and somewhat expensive, container of rice! 

Surprisingly, the process of making risotto was very straightforward and didn't take very long. You do have to stir the dish almost constantly while it's cooking (don't worry if you need to take a quick break to get a drink or soothe your crying baby, or both - it worked okay for me!), but I found the entire process pretty cathartic. From start to finish, the dish took approximately half an hour, which was totally doable in my opinion. 

The best part is that the end result was delicious! My husband, son, and I all really enjoyed the dish, and the leftovers heated up extremely well. I have made the dish once more since then, and I look forward to trying switching up the ingredients for future risotto dishes.

Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto

(from Iowa Girl Eats)

Ingredients

5 cups chicken broth
2 tbsp butter
4 tbsp minced onion
2 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chopped asparagus
24 shrimp, peeled and deveined
2/3 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Add chicken broth to a small saucepan and bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low and keep hot.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes. 
3. Add rice and combine with butter. Add wine and stir until almost completely absorbed by rice. 
4. Add 1/2 cup chicken broth to pan and stir continuously until broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until nearly absorbed before adding more. After adding 3 1/2 cups of the broth in total, add the asparagus and continue stirring. After adding another 1/2 cup of broth, add the shrimp and continue stirring. 
5. Taste rice. Continue adding the rest of the broth in 1/2 cup increments until the rice reaches a chewy-tender consistency. 
6.  Once it has reached the proper consistency, remove from heat, stir in parmesan cheese, and add pepper and salt to taste.

*Serves 4