Shrimp and corn risotto

They may only be frozen shrimp from Sam's Club, but hey, I couldn't get even that in California. Yay for shrimp!

A good risotto is basically a template. Saute an onion or a couple of shallots in some oil. Add a cup of arborio rice and cook for another minute. Start adding liquid (I like to start with a little white wine and then use some kind of broth for the rest) and stir often. Keep adding liquid until the rice is creamy and cooked through and most of the liquid is gone. Add parmesan cheese at the end.

You can make a basic risotto just like that; or you can add almost anything else to it, somewhere in the middle. Asparagus; mushrooms; canned/sundried/fresh tomatoes; beets; winter greens; spinach; seafood; the list goes on and on.

For this one, I used the leftover crawfish broth from when I made crawfish etouffee (plus white wine, and rounded that out with chicken broth), and added a bag of frozen corn in the middle. I added two handfuls of frozen shrimp right at the end, and let those cook until just thawed/cooked through. I added fresh parsley, and voila! Shrimp and corn risotto.