Greek Herby Shrimp Risotto

Chronia Polla - Happy 2010!!  I hope you all had a wonderful time.   Unlike Christmas day, we had a wonderful time during these holidays.  The weather here in Greece was fantastic and more like Spring (I heard on the weather forecast that it was the hottest New Year day the past hundred years) so with a good weather like that we couldn’t stay at home for long.

December was a very sinful month and I have used more butter than I use in a whole year.  Hopefully, we will be back to normal healthy eating again and as most of you share resolutions this time of the year, mine would be not to eat butter again until next December :)  put some exercise in my life again and try and loose the extra weight I gained during the holidays.

I don’t really like making resolutions as I never keep them but this year my primary goal will be to focus on the cookbook and hopefully have it published within 2010.   There’s a lot of work needed to be done and believe me that is more work than I imagined.  It’s a huge project and I estimate that I will be working full time in the afternoons until late in the evening.  I am not sure if I will use the recipes I have already published, but my goal will be to recreate some of them to test them again and hopefully take better photos and of course make some new original ones, always using the best fresh local ingredients and giving substitutes to some Greek products I use, wherever possible.

This will be taking a lot of my time, at least until I get started, so I will try and post only once a week, considering that I have the Greek blog as well and will follow your posts on my google reader or facebook during breaks and will try and visit all of you as much as time permits.

I used frozen shrimps to make this risotto but you can use fresh ones if you like but frozen  shrimps are just as good and you can make this dish in no time.  The addition of feta made it creamy and we loved it.  I always like to try new flavours and when I made it again, instead of using parsley and dill I used dried mint.   Absolutely delicious!!

Greek Herby Shrimp Risotto ? Recipe by Ivy

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Serves: 5 - 6

Ingredients:

1 kilo (2.20 lbs) frozen shrimps or fresh if you prefer


½ cup Olive Oil
1 leek (white part only), finely chopped
2 spring onions (white part and a little of the green), finely chopped
1 ? 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
500 grams (1.10 lbs) carolina rice (sub. arborio)


½ cup white dry wine
5 ½ cups chicken broth (I used homemade broth)


Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons parsley, finely cut
2 tablespoons dill, finely cut
100 grams (3.5 oz) feta, crumbled
2 tablespoons graviera, grated (sub. parmesan)

Directions:

Boil shrimps for 5 minutes, strain and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a big heavy skillet over medium heat.   Sauté leek, onions and garlic until they are translucent (about 2 to 3 minutes).
Add rice and sauté, stirring continuously, until rice grains are oil-coated (about 3 minutes). Pour in wine and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, adding a cup of broth each time and stirring until it is absorbed.
Season with salt and pepper and five minutes before the end, add the last cup of broth, stir in the shrimps as well as the parsley and dill. When done mix in the feta.
Cover saucepan and let stand 5 minutes before serving, sprinkling some graviera, dill and parsley on top.

Happy New Year to all of you with Good Health, Happiness and Prosperity!!

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