Paella-esque Risotto


I decided that I'd make up my paella-inspired risotto today.

I realized on Friday night that I hadn't gotten around to picking up the tomato and onion I was going to need, but it was far too hot and grass pollen-y out yesterday and today for me to want to venture out to the grocery store. I ended up trying to find substitutes for onion and tomato in the house. I was originally going to open the jar of Classico Tomato & Basil sauce I've got in the pantry, but had a peek in the fridge first and found a half-jar of Herdez Mild Salsa! Reading the ingredients list convinced me to use it instead: Tomatoes, Onions, Serrano Peppers, Salt, Coriander. Incidentally, for anyone looking for a top-notch bottled salsa, this is it.

I had grilled up a batch of the chorizo sausage yesterday and found it a bit bland for my liking (this is what I get for going to Loblaws and buying "Mild" chorizo), so I was hoping that the serrano peppers in the salsa would give it the risotto the extra kick I was looking for. I also grilled up the rest of the chicken breast and some shrimp we had in the freezer yesterday so they were all ready to go for the risotto today.

Here's a pic of the risotto "base", with a few ladels the saffron-ated (like that's a word!) chicken stock already added, plus the remainder of the jar of salsa.

Another pic of the risotto, now with the frozen peas added.

After adding the peas, it was just a matter of continuing to add the chicken stock until the risotto was about 5 minutes from completion, then throwing in the grilled chicken, chorizo and shrimp.

Overall, I was really happy with how this dish turned out. The peppers in the salsa perfectly made up for the surprising blandness of the sausage. I was also surprised to find the peas as flavourful as they were. They were easily the stand-out item in the risotto, without being overpowering. I think it was because the rest of the items in the recipe tended towards salty, whereas the peas were pleasantly sweet. I'll cheerfully being adding this to my rotation of good food to make for people.