Risotto with ham, peas, and mushrooms

[bif]

Last edited Wed Apr 17, 2013, 10:18 AM - Edit history (1)

http://cookingwiththemark.blogspot.com

Ingredients
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 cups chopped ham
1 cup frozen peas
1/4-1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped
1 c Arborio rice
1/3 c dry vermouth
1 14 oz. can reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
In a non-stick pan, brown the ham. Set aside. In the same pan, add a bit of butter or olive oil and sauté mushrooms until browned. Set these aside. Meanwhile, in a small pot, heat the broth diluted with a can of water. In a separate pot, sauté onions in butter or oil until translucent. Add rice and cook for a minute or two. Pour vermouth over the rice and when it cooks off, begin adding broth, one ladle at a time, stirring constantly. When rice is almost done (20-25 minutes), add peas. After a minute or so, add the ham, mushrooms, and cheese. Ladle a bit of broth into risotto, mix well and serve.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. I'd change the vermouth to dry white wine

I also make my own chicken broth:

After having roasted a chicken, cut off most of the remaining meat and set aside. Take the bones and the giblets (except for the liver, which is bitter when boiled), and any meat that is adhering to the bones and put into a one gallon (five liter) stockpot. Take an onion, quarter it unpeeled and throw in a couple of bay leaves. Fill the pot with water; use some of the water to rinse out the roasting pan, because there is plenty of flavor in the bits in the pan. If there is any gelatine in the pan, throw that in too.

Bring it to the boil, skim off any scum on top, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer it for at least three hours, four is even better. Cool the broth, strain it into jars, and put into the freezer. It will keep, frozen, for months.

Note: I'm sure you have all been told never to feed chicken bones to dogs. After these bones have simmered for four hours, they are perfectly safe to feed to the dog -- probably in a couple of feedings. The dog will love it.

[bif]

2. I make my own broth

But I usually end up using it for chicken soup. As far as vermouth vs. white wine, I really can't tell the difference since it cooks off.