Filling Tummies with Honey-Baked Pumpkin Risotto

I am not a big fan of risotto but every now and then I do like to whip one up in the TMX for a quick and easy dinner. I think my main issue with risotto is that many of the recipes out there are just so incredibly bland. I am generally over a risotto dish after the first mouthful. There are two risotto recipes on forum thermomix however that we really, really enjoy. They are Marmee's Chicken Cacciatore Risotto (read my comments in the thread) and Kathryn's Roasted Pumpkin and Feta Risotto. So tasty!

Kathryn's Roasted Pumpkin Risotto is always such a winner with my family and with dinner guests that when I saw the Honey-Baked Pumpkin Risotto recipe on taste.com I knew I had to convert it ASAP!. It was of course just as delicious as I thought it would be. Full of rich flavour and perfect as a entree, side or main. Yum!

Honey Baked Pumpkin Risotto

Ingredients (serves 4)

900g pumpkin, peeled, cut into 1cm cubes
2 tbsp organic olive oil
1 tbsp honey (for drizzling)
2cm piece ginger – peeled
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 celery stalks, washed and quartered
40g organic olive oil
220g arborio rice
160g white wine
600g water
1 tbsp vegie stock concentrate
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus extra to garnish
2 tbsp mascarpone (or softened cream cheese) plus extra to serve
Salt and pepper
Honey (to serve)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C.

2. Place chopped pumpkin in an even layer on a large baking tray and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes, then remove and drizzle with honey, tossing well to coat each piece. Roast for a further 15 minutes until cooked and golden. Start cooking the risotto with the directions below whilst the pumpkin is baking.

3. Add ginger to the TM bowl and grate for 10 seconds on speed 6. Add onion and celery and chop for 3 seconds on speed 5. Scrape down sides of bowl.

4. Add oil and sauté for 3 minutes on 100 degrees, reverse speed 1.

5. Add rice and wine and cook for a further minute.

6. Add stock concentrate and water and continue to cook for 16 minutes at 100 degrees, reverse speed 1.

7. Tip risotto into thermoserve and use spatula to stir through lemon juice, pumpkin, parsley, marscapone and salt and pepper. Leave to sit for 10 minutes.

8. Serve with a dollop of mascarpone, a drizzle of honey and extra parsley.

Enjoy!

Filling Tummies with Quirky Jo's Amazing Chicken Dish!!!

If you haven't tried Quirky Jo's amazing Chicken and Cashews with Coconut Satay Sauce and Coconut Rice then I suggest you put it on the menu for this weekend. I made it last night for dinner and it was absolutely divine. We all declared it was one of the best meals ever. It is also an "all-in-one" meal which is even better. The sauce cooks in the bowl, the coconut rice cooks in the basket and the chicken and veg cook in the varoma - all at the same time. Too easy! I used 500g of chicken breast and for my veggies I used sliced wombok, capsicum, carrots and green beans. I used coconut milk so I thickened the sauce with a little cornflour and water paste at the end. This really is a must try!

Filling Tummies with Yummy Homemade Pasties

When I am cooking on a budget I often dig out the cookbook that my Mum made for me when I was headed off to Uni and remind myself of all of the delicious home style recipes that I grew up eating. The book is filled with tasty and economical recipes such egg and bacon pie, porcupine meatballs, curried sausages, morney, tasty baked steak and beef stew. Yum!!! I am so lucky that my Mum taught me to cook healthy, tasty and economical meals as I see so many people struggling in this area and really not knowing any other way.

Pasties are one of my favourite meals from my special recipe book. Like my Mum, I adapt my pasties to whatever I have in the pantry and fridge. Sometimes I add cooked rice or mashed veggies to the mix. Sometimes I add relish for flavour and sometimes I use curry powder. Each batch is different. The only real rules that I follow with my pasties are that I always use quality butter puff pastry (often homemade to save $$) and I always add lots of vegies to avoid a compact mix. Here is the basic recipe:

Homemade Pasties

Ingredients:

4 sheets butter puff pastry or 1 batch homemade puff pastry
1 large onion - peeled and quartered
1 large carrot - peeled (if not organic) and quartered
2 medium potatoes - peeled and quartered
1 small parsnip or suede (optional) - peeled and quartered
large handful of frozen peas
500g mince
2 tbsp relish or tomato sauce
salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and place pastry on bench top to thaw (if using frozen). Cut each pastry sheet into four even squares.

Place onion, carrot, potatoes and parsnip/suede into TM bowl and grate for 3 seconds on speed 5. Scrape down sides and grate for a further 1-2 seconds or until finely grated.

Add mince, peas, relish and salt and pepper to the bowl and mix for 10 seconds on reverse speed 4.

Place a row of mix diagonally across each little square of pastry. Pull the two diagonally opposite sides together and pinch the pastry together encasing the filling. Repeat with each pastry square.

Bake the pasties for 10 minutes at 200 degrees before turning the oven down to 180 degrees and baking for a further 20 minutes.

Notes:

If I make my own pastry I often have some of the mix leftover. Usually I just press it into a greased loaf tin, spread it with homemade tomato sauce and bake it as a meat loaf. Meatloaf is great in sandwiches and freezes really well. Sometimes though if the mix is quite meaty I roll it into balls and fry them. Cooked meatballs are always handy in the freezer. :-)

Howdy Again!

Hi All,

Just a little note post to thank you for the lovely emails and messages that have been coming in and to let you all know that we haven’t dropped off the planet :-). We have been super busy with the start of the school year, with our birthday season (4 family birthdays in less than 3 weeks) and with making some big lifestyle changes for our family. To update you all:

Our eldest son started school in late February and has absolutely loved it. We have been thrilled to watch him become increasingly confident and social with his lovely friends. He celebrated his 5th birthday on the weekend and invited 5 of his new school friends to a ten pin bowling party. It was just beautiful!

Our beautiful boy heading off to school!

I have started work again (teaching on Fridays) and am loving the school where I am teaching. It is much larger than the school where I last taught (before the boys came along) but is just as friendly. My class is terrific and the teacher who I am team teaching with is wonderful. I must admit that I was a little concerned about heading back to work, but I have really enjoyed the challenge that my professional work brings (a different challenge to home life).

We have started to make some plans for this new phase of our life (now we have a little more money) and have been working out our family priorities for the new few years. Over the coming months don’t be surprised if you start to notice some budget cooking tips and budget recipes appearing on my blog as we knuckle down to do some serious saving. With the installation of solar panels planned for our home and a family holiday to our beautiful second home of Ethiopia we will once again be in saving mode (big-time). I quite like the challenge that saving-mode brings. I also absolutely hate owing money with a passion. I am a super old fashioned girl and could never enjoy a holiday if I had to pay it off for the next 5 years. Already I have dug out a second bigger veggie patch which is planted out ready for winter and I am now tracking down some better laying hens (our current useless hens are heading to the pot). I have also been busy mending clothes and sorting through hand-me-downs in readiness for dressing the boys for winter (although I must admit I did sneak a wee little pumpkin patch order in yesterday too).

Anyway I hope everyone’s year has started as well as ours has. I will try very hard to be back on my blog much more in the coming weeks. I have lots of news and recipes to share from my kitchen.

Chelsea :-)