CEiMB - Garden Risotto

Our CEiMB was hosted this week by Hosted by Jessica at A Singleton in the Kitchen. Jessica is one of my favorite bloggers! This week we made Ellie Krieger’s Garden Risotto together.
I love to eat risotto. I always hesitate to make it though. It is just the “time” thing. You cook, you stir, you cook, you stir, you cook some more. For some reason, it never cooks in the time the recipes say it will cook. If it says 18 minutes, you can bet your bootie it will take me 30 minutes. But if you are thinking you could substitute plain rice for risotto, think again. Risotto has a creamy, smooth taste that rice could never match. Having said that, with a glass of wine in hand, there is something incredibly relaxing about making risotto. Add a little broth, drink a little wine, stir. Add a little more broth, drink more wine, stir. Add wine, drink broth, stir. Taste risotto, slide down on floor where wine spilled, stir. Sir, drnik wine, broth add. Yeah, you can tell I had fun with this one!
A lot of home cooks are afraid of risotto which is a shame because it is easy to make and the best risotto is almost always made in the home. I think restaurants sometimes reheat theirs and it just doesn’t have that love cuddled around it that a good home-cooked dish possesses. I would love to try some risotto in Northern Italy, because I am sure it would be the best of all.

I made the recipe by the book, except I substituted canned asparagus for the fresh and left off the parmesan. I halved the recipe because there are just two of us and it was still quite a bit of risotto. I served it up with some pan fried pork chops and we enjoyed every bite of it and went back for seconds! Thank you so much Jessica for choosing this recipe this week!!

Quick question for all you wonderful cooks. . . what's the best kind of coffee to use for after dinner coffee and what ratio do you use for it? All my coffee always tastes bitter or too strong. I've tried starbucks (bitter), folgers, seattle's best, etc. What is the secret???

Garden Risotto

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
3/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 lightly packed cups baby spinach leaves
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 pound asparagus, steamed and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Directions
Bring the broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over moderately low heat and cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until soft, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add wine and simmer, stirring constantly, until absorbed, about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup of the hot broth, the salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper and simmer, stirring constantly, until broth is absorbed. Continue simmering and adding hot broth, about 3/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing the broth to be absorbed before adding more, until rice is almost tender and creamy-looking, about 18 minutes.
Add the spinach and peas and cook until the spinach is wilted. Add the asparagus and cook just until the vegetables are hot. Stir in the Parmesan and more broth if the risotto seems too thick. Serve in soup plates.