Crock Pot Risotto

I made this from the Year of Slow Cooking website on the right hand sidebar. It turned out really well-much better than I expected (although I expected it not to work at all so I suppose the fact it was edible was a success...but oh it was better than just edible.).


Ingredients:
-1 1/4 cup uncooked Arborio rice (I actually used brown rice and it turned out just as well-probably less creamy than normal risotto but still creamy and yummy.)
-1/4 cup olive oil
-1/4 cup white wine
-3 3/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
-1 t dried onion flakes
-5 cloves chopped garlic
-1 t kosher salt (I used less salt-about half this-because of the broth and Parmesan cheese adding salt on their own.)
-1/4 t black pepper
-2/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (to add at the very end)

The Directions:
Toss the uncooked Arborio rice with the olive oil in your crockpot stoneware; add the seasonings and garlic. Pour in the broth and white wine; stir to mix flavors. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, or until the rice is tender. (With my brown rice it took about 3 hours.) Stir in the shredded cheese and leave uncovered for about 15 minutes to let a bit of the moisture escape. The final product will be very creamy and have a porridge-like consistency.


**My notes-I used about a half a cup less than what she called for because I was afraid even that was too much to be absorbed. However, it absorbed it like a charm and next time I'll probably use what she actually called for.

**When mine was cooking up until the last half hour I thought all was lost-it looked like a big pot of broth with bits of uncooked rice floating about. At 2.5 hours it still looked like that. I went upstairs, showered, dried my hair and half an hour later checked back and like magic it turned into risotto like you are used to seeing! So stick with it!

**I added spinach to mine-the great thing about this type of recipe is it's a blank page to add whatever you want to it and have it turn out yummy. All you need is rice and broth, a few spices and you can clean out whatever ingredients you have lying around in your fridge, freezer or cupboards.