Fall Comfort Food Is Among Us

I love good risotto as an accompaniment to grilled chicken or steak. This past Sunday night we had a good friend of ours, Jefferson, over for dinner. Holly and I were in the mood for rice of some sort with chicken. I've followed many risotto recipes and I sort of just throw it together now without using a recipe. That's the beauty of base recipes and constant experimentation. I made this risotto with some citrus marinated chicken breasts, steamed fresh green and purple string beans and a tossed green salad. Holly made an excellent new brown sugar chocolate chip cookie recipe for dessert afterward.

Creamy Leek Risotto

1T butter
1 T olive oil
1 & ½ C rice
½ white wine
4 C chicken stock, heated
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 leek, finely sliced
Fresh black pepper
Sea salt
2 T cream or half & half
½ parmesan cheese, grated
½ C frozen petite peas
¼ C roasted pine nuts

Heat the chicken stock to a simmer in the microwave, or in small saucepan on the stove and reserve. Meanwhile in a larger saucepan over medium heat, heat butter and olive oil and sauté sliced leak and garlic until leek starts to tenderize. Add rice and cook until rice starts to brown. Reduce heat to medium low and add wine. Stir occasionally until wine has almost evaporated. Add heated broth ¼ to ½ cup at a time. Insure that the stock is incorporated before adding additional stock. Once all the stock is incorporated check tenderness of rice. You may need to add some hot water to insure rice is tender. Once rice is at desired tenderness, add salt and pepper to taste, cream, freshly grated cheese, petite peas and pine nuts. Serve warm or at room temperature.