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Risotto, how long can you hold?

post #1 of 12
5/13/07 at 10:01pm
Thread Starter 
small kitchen, like on a boat...6 burners, flattop griddle, small fryer..no steamtable...bain marrie? lmao. want to run risotto special, typical chicken sun dried, parm deal. Cook to order? and how long do I plan on ticket times? this small kitchen and no cooler or prep space is kickin my ***, one truck in a week, two specials a night with classic theme, in the land of Ranch dressing and amercian cheese. these people eat the worst garbage and call it food, gonna give a wake up to their taste buds.
Thanks all
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post #2 of 12
5/14/07 at 1:17am
good rissoto is tricky for service. To do it right you need to do it for order and serve it a little al dente. Keeping it in a steam table would kill the magic, because mushy rice is not rissoto. Stiring it all night would probly piss off your suate guy very badly.
At good italian kitchens they have a guy that just does the rissto and sits there and stirs the freakin rice all night. My favorite rissoto just has four ingredients The rice, cream, butter and white alba truffles. Its magic on a plate and im makking myself hungry just thinking about it. Bottom line unless your menu revolves around Italian cooking let the pros do the rissoto, unless you have and extra guy that needs somthing to do.
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post #3 of 12
5/14/07 at 3:37am
There is a way of producing v.good risotto without the heart ache. I do this exact method and i server each order separately. Its all to do with your prep and i had a v.good Italian chef show me this method. In getting prepped up before service take a baking tray fry off 2-3 large shallots (per 2k of aborio rice) in olive oil soften but don't brown add your risotto fry until it goes slightly transparent, add 2 ladles of white wine when the rice has almost absorbed this, Add a some stock depending on what its for let the rice absorb this then add the same amount of stock but wrap the tray in tin foil straight away an place in an oven for 13 mins @ 190c. When you take it out let it rest an you will have risotto rice that is only half cooked. In service treat it like uncooked rice and it will only take half the time if that. DO NOT cook it all the way when prepping it other wise you would have cooked out all the starch and it will make crap risotto.
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post #4 of 12
5/14/07 at 9:55am
I draw some flak here, but practicality rules.
Held risotto sucks. Always. My stupid owner occasionally demands it for chafing dish buffets, and I can't refuse him. It's suitable for hanging wallpaper, but thats all.

Uncle Ben's makes a pre cooked, portion packeted, quick cook (it's already 4/5ths cooked) risotto.

If you can't do it right, you shouldn't. But if you just have to, use UB's.
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post #5 of 12
5/14/07 at 10:48am
We dont do risotto alot, but when we do we pre-cook it, chill it, finish to order.

This does not yield the best risotto, but it satisfies our needs as well as our guests who realize that we are not a 5 star italian restaurant.
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post #6 of 12
5/14/07 at 11:22am
We do it thusly, cook rice (unflavoured) 80% of the way in a large batch (by plain boil and strain), cool on baking tray and package. Cook risotto as you would traditionally with the 80% cooked rice. Admittedly, you do lose some of the starch during the initial blanching, but it is compensated relatively well with generous applications of butter.

I also find risotto made the traditional way to be very finicky with regards to even cooking, meaning if you make too much at a time it is very easy to get rice that is unevenly cooked, some grains will still be crunchy, some will be mush, and some are al dente.
"If it's chicken, chicken a la king. If it's fish, fish a la king. If it's turkey, fish a la king." -Bender
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post #7 of 12
5/14/07 at 12:36pm
You can do a good risotto in a pressure cooker at 6 minutes under 15 pounds pressure. No stirring or attendance required. Open with the quick release method. That should fit in a to order situation if you have some prep work done before hand.

Phil
more than taste fine
me eat it all the time
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post #8 of 12
5/14/07 at 2:17pm
There appears to be an adjacent thread about pressure cookers and the consensus was that pressure cooker risotto was disgusting... any other opinions?
"If it's chicken, chicken a la king. If it's fish, fish a la king. If it's turkey, fish a la king." -Bender
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post #9 of 12
5/14/07 at 3:09pm
I'm not able to try it. My two kettles for the stock run off the same pressure as the steamer, so it only gets up to 8, maybe 9 psi.
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post #10 of 12
5/14/07 at 3:20pm
I agree with most of what's been said you cannot hold or keep risotto hot you can however get certain types of risotto rice that let out there starch very slowly which will give you a bit of time to play with carnaroli risotto rice is one of these types.

what i do sometimes is make my risotto from start to finish as if i was going to serve it straight away, but at this stage i blast chil it then cut it into a shape of you choice, flour egg and breadcrumb and serve this a hot risotto cakes which because of the breadcrumb coating stay lovely and moist
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post #11 of 12
5/14/07 at 3:35pm
It's easy to overcook in the pressure cooker but if you pay attention, it works great.

Phil
more than taste fine
me eat it all the time
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post #12 of 12
5/14/07 at 10:28pm
Thread Starter 

risotto thanks to ya

thanks for the reply all, gonna try a couple of the ideas...these people are the "ranch dressing" crowd but still doesnt change my standards...cant stand putting out half-assed food
"Dont concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory"
B Lee
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