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Hi, I'm Fiona, author of Twenty Five Foods Kids Hate and How to Get Them Eating Twenty
Four, and welcome to my Videojug Cooking For Kids Series with Net Mums. In this series
I'm going to be sharing with you my ultimate family food, tips, recipes and ideas, and
even answering some of our Net Mums questions too.
[Music]
Now I really love this recipe, it's one of my absolute favorites, and I hope you'll love
it too, okay? It's my Pea and Mint Risotto, no fuss, no faff, no stirring of stock. The
twist is this is baked in the oven, and this recipe really, really works. You'll see what
I mean.
All of the ingredients are in the description box. I have preheated the oven to 200 degrees
centigrade, that's the only bit of organization prep that you need to think about.
I've got a pan here. I'm going to add about a tablespoon of butter,
let that melt,
and about a tablespoon of oil, any oil you want, really.
In it goes. I've also got a chopped onion, and here's a great tip: if you want to make
this even quicker, the next time you're chopping an onion, chop a second one, put it in a freezer
bag, in the freezer, and you can quite easily saute the onion, which is what I'm about to
do, literally from frozen. This is such a quick, easy recipe.
So in goes the onion,
and we're going to saute that for about two to three minutes,
and if you want, add some garlic as well, and in fact if you want, add a little glass
of white wine for more flavor because the alcohol won't stay, it will evaporate, but
to be honest, I think that's a waste of a glass of white wine, but anyway.
Saute that for a couple of minutes until the onion goes a little bit pale and translucent.
Now, I know that our Net Mums fans have been voting on the exact flavor of this risotto,
so we have had some great votes in, thank you very much.
And we've had some terrific questions from you as well, in terms of all of your family
food dilemmas and quirks and problems and stuff. So let me grab some of these, and while
this is cooking, let's take a little look and see who is saying what, and I will see
if I can help.
First of all, hello hello, to Sarah P. Now Sarah says, 'Hi Fiona, I would be interested
to know your go to, standby, easy dinner, or what is your fastest dinner and favorite
meal that you and your kids enjoy.
Well funnily enough, Sarah, I've picked your question for here because actually this risotto,
believe it or not, is my easy, standby recipe, which may seem strange, because risotto is
usually stand over it, stir in stock, stir in more, stand over it, but because this is
oven baked, actually all you do is saute some onion, put it in the casserole dish as you'll
see, with the rice, with some stock, and then you go away and you leave it for like half
an hour.
Go off, bath the kids, do whatever you want to do, it's so much easier than just standing
over by the hub. And you can add whatever you want: meat, fish, veggies. It is really
tasty, and very easy too.
Lucy S, Hello to you! '
What is your favorite vegetable, and why?' What a great question, Lucy! Do you know what?
Frozen peas.
They're easy to store, they're cheap, they taste great, they go with cheese, they go
with things like mint, and also, the thing with frozen peas is there's no prep, you know?
No peeling, no chopping. And as you'll see again with this recipe, you literally, you
put the peas in from frozen, and the residual heat from the risotto will actually cook the
peas through, and I find that with pasta dishes as well, so frozen peas are definitely my
staple.
Right, so let's add the rice.
Okay, so cook the rice for about a minute or so, no more than that. It will feel a little
bit dry, but don't panic, it's fine, and really, that's it in terms of stuff to do on the hob.
Right, so, I'm going to put the onion and rice in a casserole dish,
there we go.
And I'm adding a liter of vegetable stock,
very easy.
And you know what? If you know any fans of risotto, I'm a massive risotto fan, then basically
put this video onto your Facebook feed, because just trust me, your busy mum friends and dad
friends will love this, I'm sure.
Also, click the subscribe button, and you'll get loads loads more recipes and ideas, and
follow us on twitter @Videojugfood.
Now all I'm doing is putting this in the oven for 30 minutes. Set an alarm on your phone
or something, because you want to stir it halfway through, after 15 minutes, but really,
that's all it is.
Okay, so the risotto is done, it's had 30 minutes, I gave it a stir after 15, and look
at this, it's so easy! And it's just the right texture.
Now what I'm going to do is add in flavor, add in our various bits and bobs. First of
all frozen peas,
and like I said before, the heat of the risotto, because it's still pretty hot, is going to
cook these peas for me.
And the great thing about risotto is really you can add anything you want. You can add
some grated carrots, little chopped carrots in fact, some roasted squash, beetroot.
Moving on to cheeses, you name it. Cream cheese would work if you don't want to use Parmesan.
I'm going to use Parmesan. Because it can be pricey, so use Cheddar, it's completely
down to you.
And again the heat of the risotto will cook this through.
And you've been voting! Net Mums you've been voting, thank you so much.
Were going to add salmon, so quite fresh and light, or were we going to add some ham. You
voted for ham. I kind of agree because peas and ham, you know, that's kind of a classic
combination.
And this is again a great idea for using up those extra bits of ham you've got from your
kids' sandwiches, you know the bits in the packet in the fridge that you might throw
away ordinarily, I don't know.
So just run through some ham, some cooked ham,
I won't use all of that. Use as much or as little as you like, don't get strung up on
measurements and things like that. So that goes through.
So now I want to add some zingy spring flavors, and again, these are totally optional. I'm
going to add the juice of half a lime,
so just cut it in half
and then squeeze it through your fingers to catch any pips,
and some fresh mint, which again is a classic combination or food buddy with peas. So I'll
stir this through.
So there we have it, my easy, no faff, no fuss, no stirring in of stock, pea, mint and
ham Net Mums risotto. Really hope you like it, and don't forget, come back again very
soon for more of my Videojug Cooking for Kids Net Mums Series.
I'll see you very, very soon. And meanwhile, this, for me, is tea.
Mmm, it's really good.