ngatti
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Posts posted by ngatti
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Nick-
What kind of pot do you use?
My favorite spring risotto includes meyer lemon, fresh pea and tarragon.
Your spring risotto sounds lovely.
i use a very heavy sided and bottomed restaurant aluminum pot.
I stir it with a wooden spoon/paddle that I reserve for making risotto. The amounts I make are rarely less than 500g. Usually 1k of rice at a time.
Nick
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This ones right outta Seinfeld.
Visiting Mom and Dad in FLA when the kids were tykes. Eating a late lunch/early dinner as the seniors are wont to do.
Mom orders the twofer early bird dinner specials for the table. I'm already a little embarrassed...but...okay, when in Rome etc...
Waitress asks if we want drinks. Mom says no, "just water please". Now I'm really puzzled. The clock ticks down to 4 PM and Mom calls the waitress over. "We'll order drinks now." Happy Hour twofers had just started.
Now I didn't know whether to crawl under the table or grab Mom and give her a good shake. What I did say (loudly) was..."Mom, if you ever, EVER, do that again to me, you'll never, EVER see your grandkids again!"
Ah mothers...You've gotta love them. No choice really.
Nick
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First Time this evening as a no problem 7:30 walk-in deuce.
Smokin' duck summer rolls, VG spring rolls. Forget the name of the chicken dish. Big coconut flavor, tasty, but the chicken was overcooked. The spicy beef also tasted good but was tough. Could've used a little needling.
A keeper. I'll go back. If only for the summer rolls. How the hell they do it with twenty seats is beyond me. Even with three turns. Figure an average check at 15-20 bucks. Power to them. anyone who makes food this tasty and works this hard deserves a place in culinary heaven.
Nick
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Nick - very interesting about critical factors. How do you deal with risotto in the restaurant situation? i.e. having it ready, not making the customer wait etc..
The only approach that really works in a resto context (within my experience) is the FG/Seeber one. It isn't a secret. Marcella Hazan in her "Classic Italian Cooking" book offers the same technique. BTW, Hazan is a good intro for the novice IMO.
I have worked in one resto where the risotto was cooked to order and the customer was informed of a twenty/twentfive minute wait for their appetizer. Unfortunatly there were few takers. However it is obvious to me by tasting it both ways, that the flavor is superior if the timing can be worked out so that the rissoto is served immediately.
Nick
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Pata Negra, Oh God, what a memory flood!
Sitting on the curb in Cueta waiting for the Algeceiras ferry, gnawing on a sammy. Thanks V.
Nick
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Actually Jason and Rachel are a coupla good go-to people for this one. Holly Moore looks to have a pretty smokin' home setup also.
Nick
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Yeah
, That's me on david Burke's left -
edit: sorry
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The service comments speak of "'flawless' service from a 'staff with ESP'.
Must be why I didn't get my cheese...I asked for it verbally.
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I myself have a wooden rissoto spoon that is only used for that purpose.
Whassit?
Is it marketed as a "rissoto spoon," or is it just one of those things?
I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. It is a largish wooden paddle. Not specifically a "risotto spoon". My point being that I always use this utensil for making risotto as if some otherworldy risotto magic resides within it.
Nick
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Having eaten quite a few meals at 95 greene i must say glenn does have a problem getting his facts straight-there is no halibut on the menu and it is a pastrami spring roll not a dumpling. Big difference. It must have been the flamingo(locally referred to as the "dirty bird") where he thought he had halibut. Referring to 95 greene as awful is a singular view. The Jersey Journal in an unsolicited review said it was "an address to remember" and complimented the food, decor and service. New restaurants in a rough economy, bad winter and a war have a hard enough time making it without some armchair, non-professional, chronically complaining, self appointed critic spreading his angst about never finding a good enough meal or restaurant.
Diane?
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Since its publication, I have followed the Fat Guy/Matt Seeber method of cooking risotto. I use homemade chicken stock, Orvieto Classico wine, carnaroli rice, and regular olive oil. I am partial to my Le Creuset pots for risotto making, as they maintain very consistent heat over low flame. I stir in figure eights. I am currently adding asparagus and morels from Borough Market at the end.
In general I find olive oil just does not produce a soffrito with right richness and I much prefer butter for most risotti. Also I find stock (in the French sense) too strong for the risotto technique. It Italy they use a brodo or broth that is more delicately flavored than stock. While chicken broth is acceptable, beef broth makes a more complex dish.
A mixture of both produces superb results. Finishing with a very good olive oil/rich butter/infused oil, the same. Though one must adjust the fat in the inital cooking process.
How I make risotto is determined by it's final use/flavorings/garnishes. Side dish? App? Accompaniment? All are factors that impact upon the approach and technique to a proper rissotto.
On the subject of broths; see the preceding paragraph. In the last month I have used chicken stock, chicken consomme, duck stock, duck consomme, lobster stock etc.., as well as combinations of two or three different broths and brodos.
I don't tend to use garlic (but you can, tempered usually), though a very fine brunois of aromatics which may or may not include shallots, carrots or any other (again see above) appropriate vegetable sweated in the inital fat can add much to the dish.
Over the years that I've been making it (successfully I've been told), I have found that two critical factors are the temperature of the stock/broth/brodo and the temperature of the pan as you sear and coat the rice at the beginning of the cooking process. If you sear it at too hot a heat, the ability of the rice to absorb liquid is mitigated, thereby causing a too al dente rissoto. Too hot a broth will cause this also (I've found). On the other hand, two low a heat and too cool a broth coupled with excessive stirring results in soft yet raw tasting finished product.
It's one of those techniques that lends itself to a zen-like approach. It ain't rocket science, but it is rissoto
. When you nail it (practice helps here), the feeling of "all is right with the world" can't be beat.Rissoto's perceived difficulty lends itself to mystical qualities being attached to the various accotrements used in its construction. I myself have a wooden rissoto spoon that is only used for that purpose. I have only one pot that I use (depth doesn't matter, BTW). It is one of those techniques that can't easily translate for the home cook. It can be such a touchy feely cooking process. Temperature of the pan, the broth, amount of stirring, amount of liquid etc...I taste frequently throughout the cooking process.
Carryover counts, so accounting for the time between coking and serving also comes into it.
For me risootto can be an altogether self-defining process for the cook/chef. I enjoy cooking it more for that than for the actual eating of the stuff.
YMMV
Nick
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I wonder how representative eGullet is, but it occurs to me that users post reports of dinners at Daniel, Jean-Georges and even ADNY with some frequency here. How many reports of dinner at Lespinasse? Just going on my fallible memory, I can recall two in over a year. Doesn't seem to have been a destination restaurant among our esteemed circle (one fears the same is true of Lutece).
Lespinasse was for tourists
Nick
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bringing this back up, as the dates are getting closer.
Thanks
Nick
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You should see the painting in my attic. The doo hides a lot of sins.
edit. I only ate in the old Lundy's once. My dad loved it.
Nick
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Nick, where was the “cavernous dining hall?” There used to be a small, cramped dining room around the back on the right by the bathrooms, but otherwise I don’t know what area might meet that description. Could the indoor counters just have been closed for the winter? Even so, I wouldn’t call that area cavernous.
That could very well be. It was early February when I visited.
Well it was cavernous compared to what I remember it as. but certainly not as large as say, the old Lundy's. Remember the counters use to come right to the sidewalks on Surf Ave. That entire area behind those counters was given over to dining space. There were no open counters in that area. Just seating.
edit: I'll have to go back
Nick
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My understanding (and this is chef grapvine only) is that the current owners are new.
Nick
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Glenn, What's the skinny on 95 Greene?
Nick
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Napa Valey Grille
Garden State Plaza Mall
Paramus
eat at the bar
Nick
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I think I know who Simon means by the Don.
Probably Don King
Wrong, but wilf is right, Sir Donald Bradman. The greatest cricketer in the history of the sport. Think Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth rolled into one and then given some table manners
Winona is a great choice but I would skip dinner!!!
S
I was trying to be ironic, But I need more practice. Back to smiley training wheels.
Nick
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I think I know who Simon means by the Don.
Probably Don King
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Simon Majumdar
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Hank, insiders are telling me that the old DaMora on Piermont Road in Norwood, has reopend under the name DiNora. The initial food reports are good. The restaurant is still new.
edit: FWIW
Nick
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Perhaps they were tired of having to get the @*&! cheese cart out?
Risotto
in Italy: Cooking & Baking
Posted · Edited by ngatti (log)
It's preference. I like the substantive feel that my pot has. The bottom stays flat over the years also. You know how these things are abused. Harried cooks tossing hot pans into the sink. This one is thick enough to withstand that abuse without warping.
edit: Craig-- I perfectly understand how one gets attached to these things. Objectively there may be better pots or pans, but as you imply, some are like an old comfy pair of ripped jeans.
Nice to read you again Jin.
Nick