Risotto

[Jinglepot]

Is there any way I can partially cook then hold Risotto,to be finished cooking in a couple of hours time?
Do chefs in restaurants cook from scratch for each customer?

[Jugglering]

Hi Jinglepot

Since risotto (or virtually any polished rice) takes less than 20 minutes to cook, it's not really worth cooking it beforehand. If you really wanted to pre-cook the rice, you'd be better off soaking it first for an hour or so.. this will ensure that the rice has absorbed a whole load of liquid before cooking and will then take less time to cook. Now, what it will taste like is another matter, if you soak it first, you should ensure you rinse off the starchy water, allow to drain and then drop back into boiling water. Unfortunately, I have no idea how long the rice would then take to cook cos all my timings are done from dried... doh !

Why don't you try it for different rices and let us know (I certainly would be interested :)...... you can email me on myusername - as shown below - @ aol.com)

Thanks !

[Jinglepot]

Many thanks Jugglering, I was curious after watching the American Hells Kitchen and wondered how long they had to prepare the risotto for orders.20 minutes would seem a long time with Gordon R. guldering at them to get the food out!!

[Donquixote]

At home, as Jugglering said, it's not really worth cooking risotto in advance as it takes so little time to prepare. But in professional kitchens we do par-cook the risotto in advance, and then finish it to order. This is done in a few different ways depending on what type of finished risotto is required, but most commonly a base risotto will be made by sweating onion/shallot, maybe garlic, and the rice, and adding white wine followed by the appropriate type of stock. The risotto is prepared in the normal way, adding a little stock at a time, but only cooked until just before 'al dente'. It is then cooled and used as required when an order comes on.

[Jinglepot]

Ahh, that has answered the restaurant query. Thanks Donquixote. I'll just stick to making risotto the usual home method- I enjoy making it anyway.

Thanks to you both.