Big Dude's Eclectic Ramblings: Lemon Night

I’ve been wanting to make risotto for some time (I think I bought the arborio rice 6 months ago), had found a package of scallops in the freezer, and along came Pam’s recipe for Seared Scallops on Lemon and Spinach Risotto from over at Sidewalk Shoes. Then we had some raw sliced and steamed whole Brussels sprouts left from our hash dish a couple of nights earlier and our favorite way to eat them is steamed and tossed in a lemon, butter, garlic sauce. So we decided to just make it a lemon night.

Check out Pam’s site for some good shots and the risotto recipe, which we followed as written (except I added 1/2 tsp of granulated garlic with the oil) and like her, I used chicken broth (homemade from the freezer).

As an aside, for those of you who buy chicken broth but eat chicken regularly, if you have time, you might want to consider making your own - I'm not talking stock here with veggies and stuff that require more prep time. For me it's simple, for boneless breast dishes, just buy bone-in breasts, cut off the meat (5 minute job), toss the bones and skin in a pan, cover with water and simmer several hours. Then strain, de-fat, and freeze the broth then we grind up the bones, fat, etc. in the Vitamixer for dog food. I'd guess we get a quart of broth for a time committment of 15-20 minutes and it's so much better and richer than the store bought - it can be thinned at time of use as desired, but we rarely do.

I made up the rice part of the risotto ahead of time and covered it while we did other things - this is just before startig the rice.

I'd read several other risotto recipes and ended up adding the broth two ladles full at a time. Here's some shots through the process and our flat sided wooden spoon that worked very well to prevent sticking.

We had way too many scallops for just Bev, Pat and I, so we invited neighbors, Pat and Steve, down to help us eat them. Pat brought a nice salad which, as is our dinner tradition, we ate prior to cooking the main course - except for the risotto this time.

I gave the scallops a light dusting of Emeril's Essense and cooked them in a mixture of olive oil and butter.

For the sprouts, I usually just wing it on the sauce, but I decided to come up with a repeatable recipe and I believe this is it:

½ stick butter

2 garlic cloves, finely knife minced

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Cook everything over medium low heat until garlic is fragrant, but not browned, then add the room temperature sprouts and toss until the sliced ones are done and the whole ones are warmed thru. When about done add some crumbled crispy bacon.

About half way thru entree cooking, I stirred the spinach and lemon zest into the risotto.

We plated first with the risotto, then some scallops, and the brussels sprouts and topped everything with some grated parmesan, added a hot roll (it was bread day) and a lemon wedge, which I used on my risotto.