Pumpkin risotto tutorial

I love risotto. It's one of those easy to modify recipes that almost everyone likes - including vegetarians, and I'm sure you could modify this recipe to suit vegans as well. My two favourite risottos are pumpkin and mushroom. There is something about those two vegetables that make this dish something really special. Here is my version of pumpkin risotto, the ingredients are enough for two people.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups of uncooked pumpkin - I used a Japanese pumpkin but you could also use butternut squash, Queensland Blue pumpkin, the little Kent or Golden Nugget pumpkins. Choose a rich dark orange pumpkin that can be baked in the oven and hold its shape.
1 cup uncooked Arborio rice - or some other rice suitable for risotto. Ordinary rice will not work in this dish. Risotto rice swells up and absorbs the liquid added in this recipe. It also releases its starch into the dish and you end up with a very creamy rice.
Homemade vegetable stock - more on this below
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese

HOW TO MAKE VEGETABLE STOCK
Into a large sauce pan pour two litres/quarts of water.
Add whatever vegetables you have on hand - chopped. I used celery, carrot, corn, onion, garlic and parsley. Add the parsley in one piece so you can remove it at the end of the cooking period. Don't add strong flavours like cabbage or parsnips because they'll take over the flavour of the dish.

Add salt and pepper to your taste. Remember, adding salt to food, especially to vegetables, brings out their flavour. It's very important to season food as you cook. Put the lid on the pan and bring to the boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes. Strain the vegetables out of the stock before you use it. The stock must be boiling when you add it to the rice.

PREPARING THE PUMPKIN

Chop of the pumpkin into bit sized pieces, toss over a little extra virgin olive oil (or whatever oil you use), add salt and pepper to taste and bake in the oven until golden and soft. You can see we are adding salt and pepper again. Each layer of this dish should be seasoned as it cooks. Combining properly seasoned and cooked layers will give you a well rounded final dish that shouldn't need further seasoning at the table.

When the pumpkin is cooked, put it to one side until it's needed.

SETTING EVERYTHING UP
You will need your saucepan of boiling stock right next to your frying pan on the stove. You will be scooping the stock into the frying pan so the frying pan needs to be on the heat and so does the stock. You'll need a soap ladle for adding the stock and a wooden spoon to stir the risotto.

TO MAKE THE RISOTTO
Add a splash of olive oil to your frying pan and turn on the heat. When it's hot, add the rice and stir it around until every grain is coated in oil.

Then start adding the stock to the rice. You start by adding two scoops, then stir the rice until the liquid is totally absorbed. When you add the stock it will look like the photo below.

When enough of the stock has been absorbed to go to the next stage, it will look like the photo below.

Keep adding the stock one scoop at a time, and keep stirring. Stirring the rice is an important element of this dish. It releases the starch from the rice to make a creamy risotto. When the liquid has absorbed into the rice, add another scoop of stock. Keep doing that until almost all the stock is gone and then add the baked pumpkin pieces. This part of the process will take about 15 - 20 minutes.

Let the rice simmer on the heat while it absorbs the liquid and while that is happening, grate some Parmesan cheese. Please use a piece of cheese, not that horrible stuff already shredded in the packet.

You'll only need a small amount of cheese. This photo looks like a lot but it's only a small piece that's been fluffed up by the Microplane grater.

Add the cheese to the rice and stir in. It's almost ready now. What you're looking for now is creamy rice that is not dry but not too liquid.

Keep stirring gently until it reaches a point you're happy with. If you look at the top photo, that it the consistency to aim for.

Risotto is genuine home cooking at its best. It's simple, yet complex enough to guarantee you good food for your family or guests. The best risottos are home made. Restaurants often put risotto on the menu but you need mama standing at the stove stirring to make a great risotto, and it needs to be served immediately. Leaving risotto in a warm oven dries it out. Restaurants can't afford the time to keep one chef on one serving for 20 minutes. So if you want good risotto, make it at home.

I hope you enjoy it.