Risotto
I had never made risotto before unless it came out of a box. At first it seemed daunting, but that may have been more a reflection of how overwhelmed I have been feeling about work. I printed out the recipe and after a quick read through and a heavy sigh I put it aside.
Then one night a couple of weeks later it was a very unseasonably warm and spring like. Suddenly the "seasonal affective disorder" type symptoms lifted like a cloud and we honey and I looked at each other and said "Let's grill a STEAK on the smoker!" (Honey's been loving the ole' fashioned meat smoker he got for Christmas). Suddenly my mind stopped - hey, what about RISOTTO with that steak?!? I sifted through piles and found my printed out copy and rushed to the store.
Because near my house is only a basic, basic grocery store I was unable to find proper risotto rice but instead bought a Calrose Brown medium grain rice. In my freezer was some chicken stock from a smoked chicken we had a few weeks ago (I tell ya, honey's gettin into the smokn' thing!), and also some Chanterelle mushrooms that I had partially cooked a couple of months ago when the season started.
When re-reading the directions I thought, hey this doesn't seem too complicated at all! But I underestimated the time and realized too late that the risotto was going to take longer than it would take for the steak to cook. Ever cool honey told me "don't panic" and turned the temp down on the smoker to low cook those steaks while my rice absorbed the stock.
In the end we had a pretty darn good mushroom risotto to go with some pretty darn tasting steaks! Once again, a great team of Kitchy Vicky and Smokn' Scott!
