pumpkin risotto

Ingredients (makes 2 huge servings)
1/2 cup of roasted pumpkin (cut small)
1 brown onion, diced small
1 cup of arborio rice, rinsed
4-6 cups of warm stock (vegie or chicken flavour)
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
Sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

method
1. Roast your small pieces of pumpkin on high while you cook the risotto rice.

2. In a deep, non stick pan, sweat the onions with a drizzle of olive oil until they start to turn colour. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes. Then cup by cup add the stock, by shaking* the pan until the liquid combines. Once the cup of stock is absorbed then onto the next cup of stock. Stop adding stock when the rice is cooked and tender. Usually about half an hour.

3. Toast the pine nuts in a pan then add them and the pumpkin to the rice and combine. Season to taste (love LOTS of fresh pepper on risotto) and Bobs your uncle! Poverty food at its best!

notes: I used my WONDERFUL AMAZING new rice cooker and the rice came out perfectly. In a rice cooker you cook it like brown rice, so add 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of stock and leave to cook. Cook the onion on the stove and add to the rice with the pumpkin and pine nuts when its ready. The rice gets a bit of a crust at the bottom so be careful when you're combining it at the end not to get that in the risotto. There's a little bit of waste using the rice cooker with this method, but its SO EASY it should be a crime (and less salt as you use half the amount of stock). I got my rice cooker for $25 at kmart with a steamer plate attachment. Its become my most used kitchen item!

* The school of thinking behind shake and not stir risotto is the stirring releases too much of the starch making it glugy. If you shake it you get more separated rice grains and a better texture.

other rice cooker recipes: black sticky rice and stuffed artichokes