In the Kitchen: Cook Me Some Risotto

I have discovered last night that the worst time to look at recipes is midnight, when you're just about done digesting all the food that you just ate, and your stomach is craving more. And this is exactly what I did last night - looking through recipes with my roommate (her fault) nearing midnight, and came across this recipe for red pepper, sausage and chard risotto, and I was determined to make it today. (I altered the recipe a little and added some mushroom)

Ingredients

serves 2

1/2 diced onion

2-3 minced garlic cloves

5-6 sliced button mushroom

1 tsp butter

1/2 diced large red bell pepper (I bought my groceries at a local Andronico's, and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that 1 red bell pepper was $5..talk about ripping the customers off)

3 diced Bar S bun length franks (I went to the store meaning to get sausages, but the cheapest was $9 per pack, so I ended up purchasing this)

1 cup arborio rice (I recommend using arborio rice instead of long grain rice, since arborio rice is meant for risotto and it releases starch slowly as it is cooked)

1/4 cup dry white wine

4 cups chicken stock (you can substitute for vegetable stock)

Parsley

Salt & pepper

1. Poor about 2 cupfuls of olive oil into a pan on medium heat, add garlic and onion, sautee until fragrant (you don't want the onion to turn brown)

2. Add the mushroom in, sautee for about another minute, remove into a plate

3. Add about 1 tbsp of butter (you can use more or less depending on personal taste, I personally am not a big fan of butter so I was really hesitant to add too much) into the pan, melt the butter then add the rice to the melted butter. Stir the rice to coat it with butter, just when the rice starts to turn a little transparent, add in the white wine and stir.

4. When the white dry is just about dried up in the rice, add about 1/2 cup of chicken stock, stir and leave it until it's about dried up again. Then keep adding 1/2 cup of chicken stock every time it's about to dry up, add salt and pepper to taste in between. When you are 2/3 way done with the 4 cups of chicken stock, the rice should have a creamy consistency.

5. Add another spoonful of chicken stock, and stir in the red bell pepper and sausage, then add the onion, garlic and mushroom sauteed from before. Mix well. Add parsley for garnish.

Thanks Boo for being my taste test hamster <3