The Coalition of the Swilling

This left me with the ever-delicate question of the Pamelas, still attached as nature intended.

How exactly does one remove the Pamelas from the bone? Danged if I know. So after barbarically ripping one Pam off the bone in a beastly fashion I decided to leave the other more or less as it was and put my faith in thorough cooking

So there you have it, eight pieces of happily hacked hen looking for a hot time in a pan. But first to attend to my needs.

It really is a rather refreshing wine.

now take a tablespoonish of butter

and get it meltulated with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a nice big pan over medium-highish heat

add the chicken

and let it start browning, turning occasionally. While its doing that chop 1/3 of a medium sized onion fairly fine

reserve another 1/3 for the risotto

and chop 4 healthy cloves of garlic into somewhat nicer sized chunks

add the onions, garlic and a sprig of fresh rosemary arrayed in a rakish fashion

and let them sauté for a few minutes, then add, oh, call it 3/4 of an inch of white wine

and when it starts to simmer cover and reduce the heat to medium-low

and let that puppy simmer away for 20 minutes or so whilst you work on wiping out what wine you have at hand.

After a few glasses of wine it's time to get the risotto ready. In a large sauce pan heat up 5 cups of beef broth or stock until it is at a nice slooow simmer

In a sauté pan with a lid get 3 tablespoons of butter and say 2 tablespoons of olive oil sizzlin

sauté the 1/3 of an onion from before that has been reasonably finely chopped

when the onion is clearish add two cups of arborio rice and stir it so it gets well covered with the oniony butter oil

now ladle in some of the stock

and stir it well until the rice absorbs all the liquid.

now do it again and again

until all the liquid is gone. Yep, all 5 cups. It'll take 20 minutes or so.

Now all this ladling and stirring and absorbing is thirsty work, so it's time to open another bottle

Kind of an interesting wine, this one. CMS White by Hedges; a blend of Chardonnay, Marsanne, and Sauvignon Blanc. It had a nice clean crisp fruitiness. Most yum for $12 buckskies. I had bought it to have with the mussels I was cooking the next night...but I got thirsty.

Let's see, the stock's all gone and mostly absorbed

the Frickenzee is looking and smelling frickin' good

...and now things happen fast and furious, so let's remove the buzzard to a platter

dump a heaping 1/2 cup of grated parm onto the rice

dump the juice from one lemon and some shavings from the lemon peel (only yellow stuff; none of the bitter white skin) into the pan the buzzard so recently vacated

turn back to the risotto and turn off the heat, mix the cheese in well until everything is coated and grate some fresh nutmeg on top

turn off the heat and set it aside. Get your chicken juices and lemon all a boiling and reduce it down to a nice tasty sauceitude

And then schpoon it over the 'Fricken and serve with the risotto. Yum!

total cooking time is around 45 minutes.