(A hardship I know!)
I have always enjoyed a glass of a great wine with a beautiful meal shared with friends. My first experiences with wine were straight out of studying Horticulture to my first job working in vineyards in Mt Barker in Western Australia. It was such a wonderful experience, (ok well maybe apart from all the secateurs cuts ;) working in vineyards and with winemakers gave me such an insight into wine and grape vines and the beauty of the whole process.
Mixing this with great food was always a part of it for me and from my experiences of my mothers kitchen table.
When I tried the Gewurztraminer I knew I wanted to cook with it!
This dish I have created is a relaxing recipe to create, it is slowly cooked and a savoured experience. Beautiful, enjoyable cooking, best done while also enjoying a glass of this lovely wine and even better while chatting to a great friend or two.Brown rice, Quinoa and Pumpkin Risotto
Ingredients
- 3 cloves Australian garlic, chopped
- 1 brown onion, chopped
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup Taylors White Wine I used Gewurztraminer
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 cup brown lentils
- 1 cup organic brown rice ( I actually found the organic cheaper than the non organic at coles!)
- 1/2 litre good vegetable stock
- 4 cups vegetable stock, gently warmed (not hot)
- water as needed
- 1/2 medium pumpkin
- a few garlic cloves extra (optional)
- 100g feta
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- Himalayan pink salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 180'c
- Slice the pumpkin into slices about 3 cm long and 1/2 cm thick.
- Drizzle with a little olive oil and arrange on a baking tray, add some extra cloves of garlic and roast in the oven until cooked through and a little crispy on the outside. Set aside.
- Bring the vegetable stock to the boil in a saucepan.
- Add in the lentils, reduce to a simmer and cook until soft. Set aside
- Fry the onion and leek in the olive oil until wilted.
- Add in the garlic and turmeric, stir through 2-3 minutes.
- Add in the brown rice, stir through so it is covered gently in olive oil.
- Pour in the wine, stir over a medium heat until it is mostly evaporated.
- Pour yourself a small glass of the beautiful Gewurztraminer (totally optional of course feel free to insert herbal tea here if you wish) and relax as you slowly enjoy and experience the next step of slowly adding stock to the rice, a bit at a time, stirring, enjoying the smells and textures in the pan, why not munch on some lovely carrot and red capsicum sticks too!
- Keep simmering that rice, stirring, adding stock a little at a time. If you need to use some water do so, when the rice is mostly cooked but still just a little crunchy add in the quinoa and lentils with any remaining stock and a enough water so there is enough liquid to cook the quinoa in. Mix together well and continue to simmer until rice and quinoa are cooked. Turn the heat off.
- Chop the feta into small bite sized pieces.
- Carefully fold the pumpkin pieces through the rice mixture and then the feta. The heat will allow the feta to gently melt a little in places. Remove skin and through roasted garlic cloves through.
- Serve.
- Optionally top with some freshly chopped parsley
- Optionally serve with a glass of chilled Gewurztraminer to adult dinner guests so the flavour experience continues.
Notes
- The alcohol burns off during cooking
- This dish makes beautiful leftovers the next day, enjoyed cold or hot.
Toddler Tips
- If you want to make a wine free version simple make a much smaller version for them and use stock in place of the wine, they do not usually notice the onion but you can leave out if you wish also.
- If you are serving this for a dinner party or the parents are enjoying a nice glass of wine with the meal why not make it fun for kids and let them have a chilled fruit juice in a stemmed glass too (you could always use plastic stemmed glasses from the party section at most shops if your worried about glass.
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