Creamy Lobster Risotto

Our very first lobster debut! We love to eat it, but never had made it on our own. We saw this recipe in the most recent Cooking Light and decided to spice it up a bit. The original recipe just had 5 ingredients: broth, lobster, butter, Arborio and peas. It is simple to make, but slightly time consuming considering you have to de-shell the lobster, then stir the broth and stuff constantly for like 25 minutes. It is totally worth it though, I promise. It has wonderful flavor and is very rich and creamy. It isn't something to make every week though, considering lobster tails are normally $10 a piece at our grocery store. We had to wait for them to go on sale ($5.99/ea) this week before we could justify making it. If you have a good lobster source, give this recipe a try! Oh, and the original recipe said it served 4, but we almost ate all of it between just the two of us.

Ingredients

• 4 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3 (5-ounce) American lobster tails
• 3 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 cup uncooked Arborio rice or other medium-grain rice
• 1 medium shallot, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Pinch of saffron
• 1/4 cup Vermouth 
• 3/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed

Directions

1. Bring broth and water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add lobster; cover and cook for 4 minutes. Remove lobster from pan; cool for 5 minutes. 
2. Remove meat from cooked lobster tails, reserving shells. Chop meat. 
3. Place shells in a large zip-top plastic bag. Coarsely crush shells using a meat mallet or heavy skillet. 
4. Return crushed shells to the broth mixture. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Strain shell mixture through a sieve over a bowl, reserving broth; discard solids. 
5. Return broth mixture to saucepan; keep warm over low heat. 
6. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in another medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add rice, shallot, garlic and saffron to pan; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 cup broth mixture and vermouth, and cook for 5 minutes or until liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly. 
7. Reserve 2 tablespoons broth mixture. Add the remaining broth mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion is absorbed before adding the next (about 20 minutes total).
8. Remove from heat, and stir in lobster, the reserved 2 tablespoons broth mixture, 2 tablespoons butter, and green peas.