Recipe: Risotto with Garlic Greens and Scallops - Belated Christmas and New Years

As we weren't able to spend Christmas and New Years together, we rain-checked to celebrate last night. You know, nothing says celebration like a Tuesday night.

Since he doesn't eat turkey, we had to come up with something fitting for the occasion. Enter, risotto with scallops! My recipe is modified from this one from SkinnyTaste.

Now, I've only made risotto once before, and that was really just as an experiment to see if I could make it, and neither of us has made scallops! No pressure or anything. Thankfully, I have a wonderful seafood store that was able to give me tips on how to not botch the poor, beautiful scallops.

The key with this one is to time everything perfectly so that you can have a final sip of wine and plate like a professional chef!

(I think we pulled out some beginners luck on this one.)

Risotto
2 Tbsp Butter - or substitute of choice
1 clove Garlic - crushed
2 Shallots - sliced
Salt & Pepper - to taste
1 C Arborio Rice
1/2 C White Wine
2 C Vegetable Broth
2 C Water
1/4 C Parmesan cheese

• In a small pot, on low heat, warm the vegetable broth/water. I don't love the taste of vegetable broth, so I cut the 4 C down to 2 and used water to thin out the flavours.
• In a frying pan, on medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic and shallots. Cook for about 1 min to allow the flavours to come through.
• Add the rice, salt & pepper, and continue to stir. Basically, risotto is just a good shoulder workout - there's a lot of stirring! Cook for about 2 mins (while stirring), until the rice starts to lighten (turn shiny/translucent).
• Oh, the other thing that risotto is good for!? Here it is...add the wine now. At this point, you have an open bottle of wine, so poor yourself a class to drink while you keep on stirring...
• Keep stirring...
• And stirring
• And stirring, until the wine is sucked into the rice. Then, ladle in your stock/water, little bits at a time...and keep on stirring, taking sips of wine as you go.
• When you have about 2-3 more ladles of liquid left, add the parmesan and start the greens and scallops.

Garlic Greens
2 Tbsp Butter - or substitute of choice
1 clove Garlic - crushed
LOTS Dark Leafy Greens - we used Kale

In a frying pan, heat the butter and garlic. Add the greens and cook until "done".

Scallops
2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
Scallops

In a non-stick or cast iron frying pan (you can use a different pan, but you'll want to lay down a bit of salt to keep the scallops from sticking), heat the pan over medium heat and add the coconut oil. 

When the pan is hot (not warm, hot), add the scallops and cook for 4-6 minutes on one side. Flip the scallops and cook another 1-2 minutes. Cooking time depends on how large/thick the scallops are.