Saffron Risotto

This recipe is a surprising favorite of my family. I'm surrounded by meat eaters who avoid meatless dishes like plague so it is a small victory of mine when I make them eat something without a piece of meat in it and not make them fell "empty".

Ingredients (4 servings):

• 700ml veggie stock (or chicken ... if you insist on the meat flavor)
• 80g and 120g butter
• 3 small onions (shallots preferably)
• 2 pinch saffron
• 400g risotto rice
• 150ml white wine (Chardonnay works best for me)
• 150g parmesan (or grana padano)
• basil or something green to decorate it with

1) Take 80g of butter, chopped shallots and a pinch of saffron and combine it well on a saucepan. Let it fry a little till it's nice yellow and golden. 

2) Add all the rice in the pan and mix it well. 

3) Pour in the wine and let it evaporate. That's an important step. You don't want it to swim in the wine, you just want a nice touch of it on your palate, trust me. And no, cheap wine doesn't belong here. 

4) When the liquid is gone, you can start adding the stock. One scoop at a time. You always pour in a little and when the rice makes it disappear, you know you can add more. When you run out of stock and your rice is al dente, you can turn off the heat. 

5) Add the rest of the butter and cheese (you can leave some cheese shavings for decoration). Mix it well. 

6) The cheese makes the rice stick together so that the risotto won't be as "runny" as most of them. All you need to do now is to serve it. Take some saffron, cheese and basil and decorate it.