Consider the oyster: in risotto

Annalena LOVEs her oysters.  She loves them every which what way, but especially raw.  Sometimes, however, it is time to try something new, as Annalena did this past week, in a risotto that was inspired by a gift.
As you probably know, Annalena brings lunch to her favorite farmers and vendors at the farmers market on Saturdays.   This past Saturday, the patriarch of her fishermen was working and, when he received his lunch, he filled a bag with a dozen oysters and presented them to Annalena.

Now Annalena is well known as the Mother shucker of Greenwich Village; however, these days, her evenings have become very busy  and shucking oysters is time consuming .  Annalena has gotten it down to about a minute and a half per oyster, which will not put her in the finals of any tournament, but it is what it is.  Opening them is not easy to learn, and it takes some care.  When you are trying to get dinner on the table at a decent hour, "it takes time" matters.  But, one does not look a gift oyster in the mouth.   So, Annalena spent some time, thinking about this, and developed a recipe, which is really good.  And it follows, with a caveat.  A VERY important caveat.

This is not the place to write about how to open oysters:  you should go to a restaurant you like, and ask if you can observe. And buy an oyster knife if you decide to do this. Open a dozen of them, and save it all, all the l iquid, the solid, etc. 

Now, if any of the oysters seem at all bad, DO NOT KEEP IT AND ERR ON THE CONSERVATIVE SIDE.  When Annalena made this, she had an oyster that LOOKEd bad, but smelled good.  Annalena's guide to oysters says that smells rule.

Not so here, as she got a wicked case of food poisoning. That does not make the recipe bad, however.  So it's here.   In any event, you will have about a cup of oysters. Note that it is mostly liquid.  Keep that in mind.

Get yourself half a pound of scallops, and cut them into bite sized pieces.  Now, your fish is ready, and you can get set to make your risotto.

For this, you need to violate the "golden rule" of at least four cups of broth for each cup of dry  rice.  That is because you have a cup of liquid in the oysters.  You will only need about three.  Chop up a shallot, and throw it into a pan with a couple tablespoons of butter.  When it softens, add the rice, and cook it until it goes translucent.  Have two cups of clam juice combined with a cup of water at the side, at a simmer.  If you do not have clam juice, use chicken stock.  There are instructions on how to make risotto in this blog,  so take a look.  Essentially, though, you spoon in liquid, a ladle at a time, and let it cook down.    As the liquid evaporates and the rice looks dry, add more.  When you've added about 3/4 of the liquid, stir in the scallops, and stir for about a minute. That's all it will take to cook them.  Then add the oysters.  That liquid will take you to your 4:1 ratio, and when the rice cooks to aldente: you are done.  Maybe. 

Annalena loves fennel fronds in her risotto, so she added about a quarter cup of them, chopped, to her risotto, and a bit of salt.  And there it was.  Done and good.  With the oyster that gave her food poisoning.  Don't let that happen to you.

In closing, Annalena has to get something off of her considerable chest.  This blog is for the presentation of recipes which Annalena has cooked, and liked.  Not everything she cooks goes on this blog, for various reasons.  It is a blog that is intended to perhaps guide you to do the recipes yourself, to cook better , or to try things different, based on this blog.

Some of you think it is the place to be argumentative, and to negotiate about the recipes.  Please keep that to yourself. If you do not like the recipe as it is written, THEN DON'T COOK IT.  Change it, or don't bother with it at all. But DO NOT give  Annalena attitude.  It is not appreciated.