When I travel to Ambercon in Detroit each year, I share cooking duties with Jenn and we cook in the hotel room for a couple of the nights of the convention. The room itself comes with a microwave and small fridge, and we usually bring in cooking implements and crockpot. Past years we've brought an electric wok, but due to my poor packing skills last year, it didn't come this year.
So the challenge is, come up with something healthy, nutritious, easy, and can be cooked with the available tools. My entry for this year was a crockpot risotto.
I looked through some crockpot risotto recipes I found online, and reviewed some thoughts I'd had one this once before inspired by a FoodTV episode which talked about doing risotto for a large crowd. And I determined that I could do it, but it would need to be a two phase process and came up with this recipe.
Shrimp & Arugula Risotto
1 T oil + 1 T butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 T chopped garlic
1 1/2 c arborio rice
1 c white wine (I used a riesling)
4 cans chicken stock (I used low-sodium)
4 T butter
1 1/2 to 2 c freshly grated parmesan
1 bunch arugula, washed and chopped
cooked shrimp to taste
Heat two cans chicken stock in a pan until simmering. Cover and set on a back burner. [NOTE: If cooking it straight through, use four cans at this point.]
Heat pan for risotto to medium and add oil & butter. Sweat onion and garlic together, then add rice and saute lightly until translucent. Add wine and stir until wine is absorbed by rice.
Add stock by the ladle, stir, and let simmer until absorbed until chicken broth is absorbed (all if parking it, enough for proper consistency if cooking completely).
At this point, if parking it to finish in the crockpot later, spread out on a sheet pan to cool and then package for the fridge.
To complete later, empty started risotto into crockpot. Add two cans of broth and set on high for three hours (turn to low if it looks like it needs it).
When the broth has been absorbed and the risotto is done, stir in butter, parmesan, arugula, and shrimp. Use an amount of shrimp that seems good for 5-6 servings (it all depends on how much people like shrimp *grins*).
Serve with salad or vegetables on the side.
NOTE: I made this exactly as above. Next time, I will use only one can of stock in the crockpot portion instead of two, and will likely heat it for a bit less time (maybe on low instead of high). The two cans resulted in a more porridgish consistency than I wanted. On the other hand, now that I know how to do it, I'll definitely be doing it again with other recipes until I've determined exactly how to do it right!!