Preparations:

Wash and peel the pumpkin. Do not throw away the peels. Cut 100gms pumpkin into medium sized pieces and another 100gms pumpkin into small sized pieces. Take the medium sized pumpkin pieces into a microwave safe bowl and add the peels. Add around 50ml water to the pumpkin and place this bowl in a microwave oven. Cover the bowl partially and cook the pumpkins on high power for 5 minutes. When cooked, cool for a while and make a paste of the cooked pumpkin and the peels in a mixer grinder. In another microwave safe bowl take the small sized pumpkin pieces and add 25ml water. Place this bowl in a microwave oven and cover the bowl partially. Cook these pumpkin pieces on high power for 4 minutes. The pumpkin pieces will just be cooked and the pieces should appear firm.

Crush the black pepper in a mortar and pestle to a coarse powder. Crumble the paneer with fingers and grind them in a mixer grinder to get grated paneer.

Method:

Heat a pan and add ghee to it. When the ghee is hot add the chopped garlic and fry for a while. Add the coarsely crushed black pepper and fry till the garlic changes color. Add the rice and fry till the rice grains puff. Now add some water and mix well. Cook covered on medium heat. When all the water is absorbed by the rice, add the remaining water and cook it. Cook covered till the rice is fully cooked. If required add some more water. When you observe that the rice is fully cooked remove the lid and cook till all the water evaporates. Now increase the flame and cook adding milk little by little. Keep on stirring otherwise it will get burnt from below. Like this cook till all the milk is used up through evaporation. By now the rice looks mushy (over cooked). Add the cooked pumpkin pieces and mix well. Keep on stirring all the while. Add the peel and pumpkin paste and mix again. Add salt and grated paneer to the rice and mix gently. Switch off the flame and transfer the rice to a serving bowl. Now Risotto is ready for serving.

Points to Notice:

The pumpkin pieces and peel paste gives a nice flavor to the dish. For every vegetable the vitamins lie just beneath their skins. So try to eat the vegetable along with the skin or else use the peels innovatively to retain the vitamins.Here we have cooked the peels and ground them before adding to the dish. This way there won’t be any vitamin loss. The peel contains fiber which again is good for health.

The cooked pumpkin pieces give the feel along with the flavor while eating this dish. So do not overcook the second batch of pumpkin pieces otherwise they will lose the crunchiness.

Originally cheese is added to this dish in pure Italian version. But here I am using low fat grated paneer instead of cheese. Paneer gives the taste without the heaviness of cheese.

It is better to add milk after the rice is fully cooked otherwise it takes longer time for the rice to get cooked. Once milk is added it is necessary to keep stirring all the while. Otherwise the dish gets burnt from below.

Be Careful while adding salt. Relatively the dish is less spicy and therefore needs less salt. In Telugu we call such tastes as "Kammati Ruchi"