from the "don't try this at home, kids" file...

Every so often I try something and it just, well, tanks. Hard.

Last weekend I was geeked and inspired to try something I found on another food blog (which I will not name in this post, as it's a really good blog and I don't want to make its first mention on here a bad one!). Seared scallops, ok, fine, figured those would be great, but it was the citrus risotto that caught my eye...

I have always been adventurous with food but over the past year I have also learned that I love to prepare dishes that fuse together interesting and unexpected ingredients. So I didn't bat an eye when this recipe called for risotto cooked with chicken stock and then enhanced with citrus zest and fruit.

However.

I had never made risotto before, had heard that it was difficult to prepare perfectly, so I was so pleased to watch my risotto cook up to a fluffy, perfect rice dish. I had a flash moment where I thought "Looks so delicious, it seems a shame to mix a bunch of citrus into it"...

Note to self: listen to those flashes.

st. and I spent nearly 30 minutes zesting 1 grapefruit, 2 limes, and an orange, then cutting each piece of fruit into sections (called "supreming" apparently) only to unceremoniously dump it into the bowl of flawless risotto.

It tasted...awkward, like mismatched clothing (if, um, you could taste mismatched clothing, or something...I am sure you get my drift). UNgood. Not terrible, mind you, or even sort of gross, just ungood. The citrus flesh did not shred up and mix in the way I was led to believe it would,
and after each bite I just had a quizzical look on my face. I threw the rest out, and I had a pretty huge pot of it made up. It's a damn shame.

The entire meal wasn't a bust, thankfully, as I made a brilliant red snapper. Red snapper, you ask? Yes, that's right. I couldn't find scallops to save my life, so red snapper it was. I baked it with garlic, ginger, scallions, soy sauce and a little red wine. Divine.