Risotto with Shrimp and Asparagus

Thursday 22 March
A lovely risotto (which we haven't had since November.
Peel a mess (OK a pound) o' shrimp; keep the shells. Boil sliced asparagus (stems first, tips later - you know) in about 3 cups water. Fish them out while still a bit crisp. Boil the shrimp in the same water until just pink. Fish (get it?!) them out too. Boil the shrimp shells (by the shrimp shore) in that same water. Now you got you some stock.
Make a basic risotto: 1/4 cup onion sautéed in your good-ish olive oil, then add a cup of rice and stir to coat each grain. Then add the asparagus-shrimp-shell stock (though a sieve, unless you like it extra-exoskeletal) a half-cup at a time. When it gets absorbed add more stock. Then a tub of frozen chicken stock, too. Stir lazily while watching "Ugly Betty." When every grain is meltingly tender, put in the asparagus and shrimp and warm them up.
This was phenomenally tasty.