As far as blogging goes, I've been a total slacker. By all appearances, I started a blog and then got lazy. But, it's not so!
In the last 30 days, we sold our townhouse, closed on it, and moved into a temporary apartment while we continue our search for a new home. Said apartment comes with a postage-stamp sized kitchen. There is almost literally no counter space, with the exception of the small, narrow space in front of the toaster and the microwave. Cooking is hard. Add a little dose of clumsy, and you may see why I've already done things like tipping the chopping board (and its contents) off the slide of the counter. A Pyrex dish full of marinated meat suffered the same fate recently too. It makes food blogging and taking pictures a bit tougher!
So, the day after a glorious Saturday on which we grilled some fantastic cajun chicken breasts, I decided to try cooking again in our itsy-bitsy kitchen. I settled on risotto, using some of the cajun chicken from the previous night. I picked up some fresh peas from Trader Joe's over the weekend too, and seeing those lovely, sweet green peas in my fridge sealed the deal on my brain practically shouting 'risotto!' at me.
Risotto with Fresh Peas and Chicken
2 cups Arborio rice
6 cups vegetable broth
1-2 cups water
2 medium shallots, sliced
1 cup fresh English peas
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup of cooked chicken breast, chopped
Zest from one lemon
Pepper, to taste
Asiago (or other hard cheese)
Bring the broth to a simmer. Heat a tablespoon of oil over medium heat (I used peanut, but olive would do fine), and sauté sliced shallot.
Add rice to pan, and stir until slightly translucent and rice gets a bit of color (2-3 minutes). Add 1 cup of broth, stir continuously until liquid is absorbed. Continue adding liquid 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until absorbed. Repeat. After the rice has cooked for about 10 minutes, add peas and pepper to taste. Continue adding liquid at intervals and stirring constantly. When rice is creamy and just shy of being done, add tomatoes, chicken and lemon zest, and stir for another minute or so.
Then remove from heat, cover and let sit for 5 minutes (this should help the rice to finish cooking, get a bit creamier and the flavors to melt together). To finish, grate in a little cheese and serve immediately.
Ta-da! Hope you enjoy.
