First thing to do is prepare some stock. I had some frozen homemade chicken stock, so I used that (about 6 cups). If you have seafood stock, great, use that… But, I do love the flavor a homemade chicken stock brings to this dish. You want to keep this stock warm without boiling as boiling will evaporate the stock before you can use it.

Use one large shallot or two smaller ones… If you don’t have shallots available you can use one medium onion. Shallots are just a bit milder in flavor.

Cut the shallot in half to stabilize your cutting surface.

You’ll want a small to medium dice.

Warm a non-stick (if you have one) pot over medium heat. Add in a few tablespoons of olive oil.

Next add in a couple tablespoons of butter to the olive oil for flavor.

Add your diced shallots to the fat in the pot.

Saute over medium heat until golden brown.

Chop up a couple cloves of garlic and add in to your already golden shallots.

This is aborio rice… It is widely known as one of the best rices to use for making a good risotto. This particular one is just my store brand, but it is a long grain Italian rice imported from Italy.

Each grain is fatter than your run of the mill rice.

Add your raw unwashed rice to your pot with your shallots and onions. You want to toast your rice grains before you start adding in liquid.

The trick to a good risotto is to add in your liquid slowly.

Add your warmed stock to your pot one ladle full at a time.

You want to make sure each ladle gets completely soaked in before you add the next ladle. Stir continuously.

I have a left over lobster from this past weekend. So this baby is getting cut up and put in my pot.

I start off by removing the legs and popping them in my pot. This helps me achieve two things. Since I am using chicken stock, the legs help to introduce a seafood stock flavor… They are also pretty yummy to add to each individual dish.

Remove the meat.

Chop it up into medium sized chunks.

Add your meat into your pot when you only have a couple ladles of stock left to go. As the lobster is already cooked, your goal here is just to heat the meat through, not to over cook your meat. This is a good time to add in 1/2 cup of dry white wine as well.

At this point I like to finish with a few more tablespoons of butter and top with some reserved lobster meat. Then I top with some chopped up scallions or parsley. You also want to taste for salt and pepper now as well.