Shrimp and Clam Risotto with Thyme butter

I love making risotto. It's time consuming, yes.  Also can be quite fussy. It's easy to over or under cook, and when seasoning I find it's never salty enough until suddenly it's way too salty. I think of Gordon Ramsay doing his "angry chef" bit, yelling at some hapless hopeful on many a cooking reality show - "THIS IS INEDIBLE! YOU'RE USELESS! DO IT OVER!". So it could be the challenge, or the fact that it is so creamy and decadent when you hit it right.

I was going to make a shrimp risotto from Martha Stewart, but she calls for a pressure cooker which I don't have. I started looking for variations, and saw one recipe that called for clam juice with the shrimp. Well why not add clams as well I thought. I started by cooking them almost through with the can of clams and fresh thyme.

Shrimp. clams, and thyme

I've seen a few recipes with tarragon, but SO can't eat/doesn't like tarragon so thought I'd try basil and thyme. I cooked the shrimp with thyme, and also made a little herb butter with more thyme and a fair bit of basil. The butter was added at the end to the dish, and also a little pat as garnish.

Shrimp and Clam Risotto with thyme butter

Other than that, it's a pretty standard mushroom risotto with less mushrooms and lots of shrimp and clams. Even though this was shaping up to be a seafood risotto, I can't help but put mushrooms in. Mushrooms and risotto is kind of like pork and apple sauce, or orange and chocolate. The pairing is just too good.

Next Time: maybe try different seafood combinations, maybe different herbs

Me: 9/10
SO: 9.5/10
SSO: 3/10

Black Bean and Kale Braised Chicken

As often they do, this new recipe (for us) started as a large box of chicken legs from our local butcher. Quality is good, and much cheaper than the grocery store. So....what to make with chicken legs?  Also as we often do, SO finds a great recipe idea (planning and analysis) while I do the cooking (design and implementation). Hmmm, wonder what I do for a living.  This is based on a Tobasco Braised Chicken recipe from foodiecrush.com. I made some changes to suit us, and I think it turned out great. I ended up spicing it differently, omitted the tobasco in favour of Sriracha, and halved the chick peas to make room for black beans. Also threw in some celery along with the onion.

Black Bean & Kale Braised Chicken

I went really easy on the hot sauce because SSO doesn't like "spicy".

Next Time: would spice it up more, maybe try different veggies

Me: 8/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 6.5/10

One-pan Baked Sausage Pasta

It wasn't long ago I did a "Potato Sausage Bake".  I guess we are really into sausage and potato these days.  This one is a bit different, is saucier and has pasta. Actually it came together as one of those "let's get rid of leftovers in the fridge" kind of dishes.  It's also a lesson in what not to do, and what I like and don't like. We had some celery going soft, a big bag of carrots that needed to be winnowed down, and a tupperware of cooked plain pasta from the other night that would have otherwise been thrown away soon. Oh, and a huge sausage in a take-out box from SO's lunch at some restaurant.

One-pan Baked Sausage Pasta

So there are two things I liked about this: it was all done in one pan, and it used up some stuff from the fridge. I didn't like a few things though: I put too much cheese, and I didn't like the refried beans I put in. SO really liked the beans on the other hand.  Oh yeah, the breadcrumbs on top was really nice, added a little crunch.

Next time: if it's going to be saucy, then don't go half-way. It was mushy instead of saucy.

Me: 5/10
SO:8/10
SSO: 3/10