[upbeat music] - I am making rice in peas, a simple but delicious dish.

It's the kind of thing I turn to when I'm hungry, but I'm not sure what I'm hungry for.

And somehow this always hits the spot.

I'm gonna start by warming a little oil and a little butter in the pan.

I like using a combination of olive oil and butter because they each bring something to the recipe, their own little richness.

And together they're the perfect cooking fat for this dish.

So as soon as my butter melts, I'm gonna add a little bit of finely chopped shallots.

Whenever I put onions in a pot, I always add a pinch of salt.

And the reason I do that is salt makes food, including these shallots, turn tender and release their own moisture.

It's very simple, but everything we add to the pot is going to give it great flavor.

So I'm gonna let these onions cook until they're fully tender, maybe five to eight minutes.

And the next thing that goes in is a Parmesan broth.

It is so easy, and it's packed with flavor.

Parmesan rinds are the outside edges of a big wheel of Parmesano Reggiano cheese that are too hard to grate.

They're full of flavor, like a meatless soup bone.

I'm using them to make my chicken stock even more delicious before adding it to the rice.

It's easy.

Place the rinds in a sauce pan and add chicken stock and a little water.

You can use vegetable stock if you want to keep this recipe meatless.

Add lots of garlic and a couple of bay leaves.

Simmer until you can taste the Parmesan, about 30 minutes.

Strain the stock, pour it back into the pan.

You could discard the rinds, but I like to nibble on the soft edges as a little cook's treat.

I love the flavor and the aroma of that Parmesan broth.

It's amazing how much flavor we got out of those rinds.

But my next step here is the rice, the star of this recipe.

I am using a short grain rice, a risotto rice, because I want this to turn out creamy and brothy and delicious.

Now, I am ready to start adding my broth.

And I'm gonna do that in stages, about a ladle full at a time.

It's a little bit like making risotto, but this is so much easier.

So I'm down to about my last ladle or so of the broth.

And that means it's time to add the peas.

All right, I'm gonna confess something to you.

I adore frozen little green peas.

I don't think there's any vegetable that turns out better frozen than it is fresh.

And now we can see where this is headed.

I'm only gonna cook it for another minute or so just to give these peas time to heat through.

I've got a couple more things to go in the pot.

The first thing I'm going to add is some good Parmesan.

I actually graded this from the block of cheese that I used for the cheese rinds.

And I've got this really finely ground so that it almost dissolves in this broth and thickens it up.

So right before I serve this, I add a couple of last minute things to add some brightness to lift this up.

My go-to for that is a lemon.

We're gonna start with a little zest.

I'm going to cut this lemon in half and squeeze in the juice.

There we go.

Rice loves pepper.

This recipe loves pepper.

Put that in there.

And one last pat of butter.

Once the butter's melted, we are good to go.

It's time to taste it.

I'm gonna put a couple of big scoops in this, and making sure I get a little bit of that amazing broth.

Make myself a spot here.

I'm gonna add two more drops of lemon.

I'm gonna add a good sprinkle of chives.

And last but not least, one more bit of Parmesan.

And I'm gonna take a vegetable peeler, and I'm just gonna pull some gorgeous big ribbons of that.

And I'm gonna dig in.

Don't you love a dish that tastes like you worked all day when you really didn't?

This is comforting.

It's special, but it's not fussy.

You get the creamy rice, you get that little bit of cheese, you get some garlic.

Makes me happy every time I make it.

[upbeat music]