Pork Brats and Risotto

This has to be one of the best tasting meals I've made in a while and it was a spur of the moment idea. I had picked up some nitrate free brats that were on sale in the deli at the store. But when I brought them home I realized I had never cooked raw brats only the pre cooked kind. So I looked up some recipes and since I'm not very good at following a recipe I took some things that I liked from each one and set off to cook my brats.

The first thing I did was brown the brats then after they were good and brown on all sides I took them out and set them aside temporarily. Then I cut half an onion like you would for a stir fry and threw them into the pan along with some pre-cut red bell peppers I had frozen earlier in the season. I let them saute in some butter for a while then added the brats back in and put enough chicken stock in to reach half way up the brats put a lid on and let them simmer for about 40 min. At this point you are thinking what is the big deal this is a basic recipe for brats nothing special. Yep although the brats were good they were not the wow in this meal. The wow came after when I saw all the yummy juice left after the brats were cooked. At this point I thought well I could boil it down to make a sauce OR I could put some arborio rice I bought to make risotto and make a mock risotto. So of course I picked the second choice and it was awesome. The flavors mixed perfectly and at the end I mixed a little half and half. It was perfect with the brats. I don't think I would have thought the brats and risotto would work so well together but it was really a great meal. I hope you try it.