Risotto w/ Scallops, Saffron and Fava Beans

Fresh green fava beans have been showing up on American menus a lot lately. I use frozen ones, sold as Broad Beans by Goya. One benefit to the frozen beans is that if you just run them under hot water for a minute, the inedible shells thaw while the beans stay frozen, so it’s easier to remove the shells without crushing the bean.


Ingredients:

2 cups chopped scallops (chopped if big, whole if small)

2 cups shelled fava beans (you could use peas too)

1 chopped white onion (leeks would be great here)

2 chopped garlic cloves

2 tbs. olive oil

2 cups Arborio or Sushi Rice

4-5 cups Stock (I used Better than Bouillon lobster stock, which works well here but is generally disgusting. If you don’t have time/constitution/ventilation to make your own fish stock, chicken or vegetable stock will do.)

Pinch each of saffron, white pepper, marjoram, and cayenne pepper

1⁄4 cup heavy cream (optional)


Lightly sauté onions in 1 tbs.olive oil. Add rice and brown the rice a little. Add garlic. Add half the stock and stir. Set to simmer, and add fava beans when rice is half-cooked. Slowly add rest of stock. When rice is a just a bit harder than al dente, add the spices and scallops. Keep stirring until a creamy, loose consistency had been achieved. Finish with cream and 1 tbs. olive oil and serve immediately.



For the portions you freeze, add a little stock to help with reheating in the microwave.



Frugal Factor: I bought the main ingredients so long ago I am a little lost. I think it would be $4 for the scallops left over from a big bag I got on sale, $1.50 for the fava beans, $4 for the Arborio rice at the overcharging supermarket price, $1 for everything else. I got 6 servings out of this recipe, so that’s $1.75/serving. A restaurant would sell this for $15!