Sort of Persian-inspired Fish and Rice

A random experiment to use up some broad beans, inspired by reading through some Persian recipes.
The result was tasty, and worth recording so we can repeat it another day.
Add more chopped fresh herbs if you have them - parsley, dill, chives, fenugreek leaves...

• 1 Onion, chopped
• a knob or two of Butter
• 1 bunch Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
• a few sprigs of garden Mint Leaves, finely chopped
• 1 cup Basmati Rice
• 1 mini carton of White Wine, plus water to make it up to 1.5 cups total liquid
• Salt, Pepper, Cinnamon and a little Turmeric to season
• 3 frozen fillets of White Fish
• Fresh Broad Beans, shelled.

Turn on the rice cooker to cook mode and melt the butter in its pan.
Saute the onions in the butter until translucent.
Add the rice, wine+water, chopped herbs and seasonings and stir to combine.
Layer the frozen fillets and the broad beans on top of the rice.
Put the lid on the rice cooker, switch it off and on again, and restart the cook cycle.
Once the rice cooker switches to keep warm, let it stand for a few more minutes to finish steaming the fish and beans.
Break up the fish into bitesize pieces and fold gently through the rice.

Ham Risotto in the Rice Cooker

I make a lot of Asian-inspired rice cooker dishes, but tonight I fancied a more European flavour to my rice.

Rice cookers can be subverted into cooking a risotto. The trick lies in how a rice cooker works. A basic rice cooker heats the carefully measured water and rice mixture until the water evaporates, at which point the temperature rises above 100C and the rice cooker switches off.

To cook a risotto, you need to add more water than the rice needs to cook through, and manually switch off the rice cooker when the rice has finished cooking.

Best of all - with the rice cooker risotto method, there is no need to stand over the pan constantly stirring and adding liquid!