Shrimp and Goat Cheese Risotto

I recently had goat cheese for the first time and I really enjoyed it.  So when I was looking to find something to make for dinner and came across a risotto recipe that had goat cheese in it, I was intrigued.  I took two different Risotto recipes, one from www.foodandwine.com  and the other from www.epicurious.com,  this is what I came up with:

You ll need:

• 1 lb of medium shrimp (peeled, and deveined)
• 32 oz vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped,
• 1 clove elephant garlic minced
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio Rice
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup white whine
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1 1/2 cups peas
• 9 stalks of asparagus chopped
• 1 cup chopped baby portobella mushrooms
• 4 oz goat cheese
• freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
• 1 lemon

In a medium sauce pan bring the vegetable broth to a simmer and add shrimp.  Let shrimp cook for 2 - 3 minutes.  Remove shrimp from the broth and set shrimp aside.  Keep the broth on low heat.  In another sauce pan heat up the olive oil and butter then add the onions, garlic, salt and pepper.  Once the onions become transparent add the mushrooms, peas and Asparagus.  Saute for a few minutes, when the mushrooms become soft and the asparagus turns a bright green remove from the pan and set aside.

Heat some more olive oil in the saucepan and add the Arborio rice. Allow the rice to become covered with the oil. Now add 1 cup of the warm veggie stock and let simmer on a low to medium heat until the stock is absorbed.  Add 1 cup of  white wine and allow the rice to absorb it.  Continue to add the remainder of the veggie stock, 1 cup at a time allowing the rice to slowly absorb the stock.  The risotto will become tender when the stock is completely absorbed.  Now add the veggies and the shrimp that were set aside.  On a low heat, continuously stir all the ingredients together while adding the goat cheese and the juice of one lemon.  The mixture will become very creamy and will now be ready to plate.

Take a large spoonful of the mixture and place on a plate with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and fresh Italian Parsley.  Serve with a slice of lemon and the Herb Butter Twists from my previous post.