Risotto Pie/Cakes

Everywhere I look nowdays I seem to see a recipe for risotto cakes or pies, gluten-free and otherwise. I've taken bits and pieces of different recipes and come up with one that Matt and I like. Hubby doesn't need gluten-free food but likes to eat one while they're hot. A proper risotto seems to require having hot stock on hand and adding it gradually to the rice, but I have a quick and easy (busy mother's) method instead:

1. Melt about a tablespoon of butter or margarine in a large saucepan. You could probably use a little olive oil instead.

2. Add some chopped shallot or onion and cook a few minutes.

3. Add 1 and a half cups of Arborio rice and stir to coat rice. (Australian 250 ml cup used here - it's a little larger than the 8 oz cup)

4. Add 3 cups of cold chicken stock. I make mine by adding 3 gluten-free chicken stock cubes to 3 cups of cold water.

5. Bring to the boil. Stir thoroughly and place a lid on the saucepan and turn off the heat immediately. Allow to sit for 20 minutes.

6. Add whatever you like to the rice mixture. For the ones pictured above I added a few rashers of chopped, cooked bacon, 1 cup of grated mozarella cheese and about half a cup of fruit chutney. Although some recipes don't use eggs, I also added an egg substitute called "No Egg" made by Orgran (3 egg equivalents). I think that they would work okay without the eggs though, especially if making it as a pie rather than cakes. In the past I've also added cooked corn kernels and chopped capsicum (red pepper in other countries?).

7. You can then cook it as a pie in a pie dish or as muffins. This mixture made 12 large muffins and 15 mini-muffins.

8. Cook in a moderate oven (180 C/350 F) until nicely browned.

The muffins freeze well and can be re-heated in the microwave.