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I love eating rice and would cook and eat rice nearly everyday. Risotto is a classic Italian cuisine, well accepted by people with different cultural backgrounds around the world. Not to mention, I love its rich and creamy texture going extremely well with a variety of vegetables or meats. The traditional way of cooking risotto is to add stock into the grains gradually and stir constantly. Generally speaking, the whole process of cooking the grains from raw to being cooked with constant stirring requires me standing near the stove at least 25 to 30 minutes or so. I happily invest all the efforts and time in cooking this fantastic cuisine as ?labour of love? for my family and the end results prove the labour is well worth.

But there are often times, when I am tired, or have some urgent or important things interrupted or for any other reasons, yet I still want a bowl of creamy risotto, I might go for a short cut in cooking. I found a cheating way to cook risotto with similar outcome that I want. The trick is simple, just use a steamer or a wok to replace the constant stirring near the hot stove and skip the hardest part of making this dish. But I have to insert a disclaimer here. The cheating way of my approach and cooking time taken in the following recipe is to produce the well cooked rice in order to suit our Asian rice-eating buds. As for those people who love a bit chewy inside, you have to adjust the cooking time and quantity of stock. Do one or two experiments yourself to find the optimal way to suit your taste if you want to cheat in cooking risotto. Follow my first cooking hack, A Quick Way to Make Crème Brulee Without an Oven, this is my second one posted on this website. Hope you all like it and enjoy.

Serves 3 to 4 (Adapted from Australian Good Food, May 2010 edition)

Ingredients:

• 600g (21oz) butternut pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and diced
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp thyme leaves
• 150g (5oz) Arborio rice, about 3/4cup
• 70ml dry white wine
• 550ml salt-reduced vegetable stock
• 35g (1.5oz) parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 tbsp olive oil

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Cooking Pumpkin Risotto in a cheating way

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C (390F). Add 1 tablespoon of oil to two thirds of the diced pumpkin and toss to coat. Transfer them onto a baking pan, lined with baking paper. Bake for 30 minutes, or until tender and golden.
2. Bring water to boil in a steamer or wok. Prepare a large deep dish and its size fits in the wok. Use a saucepan, heat stock and bring it to boil.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook onion and celery until aromatic for 3 minutes. Add garlic, bay leaf and thyme. Cook for 1 minute. Add rice and stir to coat. Pour wine into the mixture, stir for 1 to 2 minutes until evaporated. Add stock with the rest of the diced pumpkin and bring to boil. Carefully transfer the mixture to the large deep dish in the wok. Steam over high heat for 15 to 20 minutes. Taste a few grains by yourself until the texture is cooked to your preference.
4. Remove dish from steamer. Stir in parmesan, season with salt if necessary, and let it stand for 3 minutes. Divide into separate serving bowls, then top with baked pumpkin and extra grated parmesan. Serve hot.

I have passions of cooking all kinds of good foods and different cuisines for my family. Check out my food blog, Christine?s Recipes for all the dishes I have cooked, with full recipes and step-by-step instructions and photos.

Christine Ho is a retired teacher and has many years of home cooking. Two years ago, she started blogging what she knew how to cook, both in Chinese and English, so that her daughter would have a record of all of them for when she starts her own family one day. Hopefully, when she has a daughter, she will pass these recipes on with a few changes of her own!

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