R is for Risotto for The Kids Cook Monday

I love Italian food.  Actually I love most food but dishes like pastas, pizzas and risottos are staples on our weekly menu plan.  I am hoping that one day (soon?) Bear and Bee will love lots of different foods too.  Right now I would settle for them just regularly eating dinner.

Risottos are great at this time of year in Australia.  And while I do make risottos using the traditional method of gradually stirring spoonfuls of hot stock into a pan of rice I am also partial to trying new ways.  I love Donna Hay's (well know Australian chef) oven baked risottos and I have a tried and true microwave mushroom risotto.

The risotto recipe Bee helped me prepare tonight is another microwave version I came across.  The original recipe used a can of cream of mushroom condensed soup and stock for the liquid and to add extra flavour, some bacon and rocket.  Using what we had in the pantry our version had cream of chicken soup, ham slices and frozen baby peas.

This is a great recipe and will now be a regular on our winter menu plan.  It is so easy to change the flavours to suit your tastes or, as we did, to suit what you have in your pantry.

Microwave Risotto
Serves 4 (large serves)
Download a recipe card for this recipe here.

Ingredients
3 cups of hot chicken stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small brown onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
100g sliced ham, chopped
2 cups Arborio rice
420g can cream of chicken condensed soup
1/2 cup boiling water
2/3 cup frozen baby peas
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese


Directions

1. Combine oil, onion and garlic in a 2 litre capacity dish with a lid suitable for use in a microwave.
2. Microwave on high (100%) for 2 minutes.

3. Stir in ham and microwave on high (100%) for another 2 minutes.

4. Stir in rice, making sure it is well coated in the oil.
5. Microwave on high (100%) for 1 minute.

Be careful when handling hot liquids.

6. Add stock. Stir well and microwave, covered, on high (100%) for 10 minutes.  The liquid should be reduced by half at this stage.

7. Stir in soup and boiling water. Microwave, covered, on medium (50%) for 5 minutes.

8. Add in frozen peas. Stir and microwave, covered, on medium (50%) for 3 minutes. 
9. Stir through parmesan and serve.

As all microwaves vary, it is necessary to keep a close eye on the consistency of the risotto in the final stages of cooking.  You don't want to overcook it as the rice will be become gluggy.