Fixing a T-Fal Actifry Risotto Recipe
The risotto recipes that T-Fal™ provides are useful in letting us know that the machines can make risotto. The machines are definitely great risotto makers. (See here if you’re not sure of the definition of risotto.)
Where the recipes provided by the manufacturer fall down is that, so far (as of autumn 2014), they don’t call for anywhere near enough liquid.
Summary
You usually need to allow for about double the cooking liquid called for in Actifry risotto recipes provided by T-Fal, particularly if you are using real actual risotto rice.
I advise also heating the liquid to near boiling either in a pot or in the microwave.
See my suggested base recipe for Actifry risotto.
See also my tips for risotto in an Actifry.
(Note: stock / water can superheat in a microwave and semi-explode in a process called “nucleation” when moved. To help avoid this, stir the liquid well before heating and exercise extreme caution when removing from microwave.)
Background
In this post, I’m going to demonstrate my assertion that the recipes need more liquid by making this recipe from the Family Sized Actifry cookbook: Sun-dried Tomato and Scallion Risotto. [1] Actifry Family Size Cookbook: We All Cook. Canadian edition. Undated, approx 2012. Ref 5086873. Page 124.
Sun-dried Tomato and Scallion Risotto: scanned excerpt from T-Fal Family Size Actifry Cookbook. Copyright T-Fal.
I followed Step 1 exactly. I heated 3 tablespoons of butter for 3 minutes, then added 1 1/2 cups (300g) of arborio rice, then cooked the rice for the 2 minutes called for, to toast it. (The rice, by the way, was fresh from a store with high turnover, therefore not ancient, super dry rice.)
I followed Step 2 exactly next. I added the 3 1/4 cups (800 ml) of vegetable stock. (I zapped the stock first in the microwave to get it quite hot.) Then put the Actifry timer on for 25 minutes.
The risotto after 25 minutes
Fixing a T-Fal Actifry Risotto Recipe: After 25 minutes.
Above you see it after 25 minutes. It’s supposed to be done. It’s had its full cooking time called for.
But the rice is quite crunchy still, and it hasn’t started to swell yet, in the way that arborio rice does in risotto.
There’s a small bit of liquid left in the pan.
Maybe if I give it another 5 minutes a Northern Italian kitchen miracle will happen.
The risotto after 30 minutes
Fixing a T-Fal Actifry Risotto Recipe: After 30 minutes.
Above you see it after 30 minutes. The rice is still crunchy, and there is none at all of that creaminess that you associate with risotto. In fact, it’s kind of clumping up like sticky rice.
There’s no liquid left: in fact, a few grains of rice are starting to toast and burn owing to the dry heat blasts in the absence of liquid.
So at this point, I’m closing the recipe book and taking over the thinking myself.
I’m adding : 1 cup (250 ml) more of heated stock, and 10 minutes more cooking time.
The risotto after 40 minutes
Fixing a T-Fal Actifry Risotto Recipe: After 40 minutes.
There has now been a total of 40 minutes and a total of 4 1/4 cups (1 litre) of stock.
Many grains of rice still are crunchy starch in the middle, as you can tell visually by the solid pearl white centres. A bit of creaminess is finally starting to happen, but it’s pretty dry — the rice happily took up the extra liquid and really seems to want more, and I think that most people would not call this risotto done yet.
I’m adding : 1 cup (250 ml) more of heated stock, and 10 minutes more cooking time.
The risotto after 50 minutes
Fixing a T-Fal Actifry Risotto Recipe: After 50 minutes.
There has now been a total of 50 minutes and a total of 5 1/4 cups (1.25 litre) of stock.
The crunch is definitely gone from the rice. It’s still decidely toothsome, though. In a bit more than an “al dente” kind of way.
The rice is getting slightly creamy, but it’s clumping. Risotto I feel should be a bit more liquidy than this, and the rice seems still willing to take in more broth.
I’m adding : 1 cup (250 ml) more of heated stock, and 10 minutes more cooking time.
The risotto after 60 minutes
Fixing a T-Fal Actifry Risotto Recipe: After 60 minutes.
There has now been a total of 60 minutes and a total of 6 1/4 cups (1.5 litres) of stock.
After 60 minutes, it is still dry. And, I’m out of thawed stock. It’s just as well though — it is starting to taste just a bit “over concentrated stock taste.” So, for the next round, it’s going to get boiling plain water from the kettle.
If this next round doesn’t do it, I swear the next step will be to chuck it all in the pressure cooker to finish it off, because this is getting old fast. The magic has left the room. This risotto has taken on more water than the Titanic did.
I’m adding : 1 cup (250 ml) of boiling plain water and just 5 minutes more cooking time.
The risotto after 65 minutes
Fixing a T-Fal Actifry Risotto Recipe: After 65 minutes.
There has now been a total of 65 minutes and a total of 7 1/4 cups (1.75 litres) of stock / liquid.
There were a few puddles of water in the pan, but after a quick manual stir with a plastic spoon that water quickly got taken up by the rice to form a nice, creamy sauce.
The rice is firm, perfectly al dente, and no crunchy or raw centre.
We’re finally done here.
Summary of process and results for a risotto in an Actifry
I used 3 tablespoons (50 g) of butter, 1 1/2 cups (300 g) of Arborio risotto rice and 7 1/4 cups (1.75 litres) of heated stock / liquid.
The yield was 3 cups / 800 grams.
The cooking time was 65 minutes.
NOTE: I’ve since remade this, providing the 7 1/4 cups (1.75 litres) of heated stock / liquid right at the start and I found that the cooking time reduces to a far more reasonable 40 to 45 minutes.
I’d be hard pressed to think that the quantity of butter, or butter as opposed to oil, or duck fat, really had any bearing on the outcomes in terms of length of time / quantity of liquid required.
In case anyone is curious about nutrition, without adding any other ingredients, the nutrition for this very basic risotto foundation works out to be 252 calories per 1/2 cup (125 g) serving. That’s a lot for 1/2 cup (125 g), mostly because risotto is pure carb heaven, but you could perhaps mitigate that somewhat (222 calories ) by using a tablespoon of oil instead of the 3 tablespoons of butter.
P.S.: In addition to the above issues, in my view the T-Fal Actifry recipes call for WAY too much Parmesan cheese. I have no idea what they are thinking. My only guess is that they are assuming someone will use regular table rice, as opposed to risotto rice. Regular rice won’t have the thickness and creaminess that risotto rice does. Using a lot of Parmesan cheese could compensate for that.
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* PointsPlus™ calculated by hotairfrying.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.
* T-Fal™ and Actifry™ are registered trademarks of SEB, France.
References
| ↑1 | Actifry Family Size Cookbook: We All Cook. Canadian edition. Undated, approx 2012. Ref 5086873. Page 124. |
|---|
After working through the all-too-familiar misdirections in a new kitchen gadget’s “suggested recipes,” you seem to have discovered the correct amounts and times required for risotto. But, even at best, it still seems like a lot of trouble for a dish that admittedly is a fair amount of work anyway. And, is hot air really the most efficient way to cook a dish that’s traditionally – and properly – boiled (or simmered, if you will)? No wonder you needed so much liquid – surely it evaporated before the rice absorbed it.
As for the potato roasts/fries, the taking out and tossing (twice!) isn’t exactly vindication of the “no muss/no fuss, Joy makes dishwashing almost nice!” techno-promise. If I had a convection oven, I think I could duplicate the results, and even with a standard oven, my roasties come out perfect with a comparably minimum of oil.
There’s a compulsive aspect to kitchen technology that’s playing out in increasingly redundant gadgetry. Food processors are a case in point: I finally gave my expensive Cuisinart away, and learned to use my very sharp chef’s knife. An archaic Mandoline juliennes things perfectly. And, as I rinse my dinner dishes, unload the dish washer, reload it, listen to it grinding away precious electricity for 90 minutes and smell the chlorine stench, then unload the damn thing, I find myself wondering if I and the planet would have been better off had I hand-washed and air-dried in a rack. What would a time and motion expert have to say? Call me a luddite/hippie curmudgeon, but I remain to be convinced that the hot-air fryer is anything other than a money grab. Still, I do long for a really good french fry of an evening…
Roast potatoes in a basket type do require that kind of tossing interaction, yes. FYI for a paddle-type such as Actifry: insert 1 tbsp duck fat or goose fat and potatoes. Set timer for 45 minutes. End of work by user.
And yes, the risottos are amazing out of an Actifry, very creamy, and because it’s the same process — add ingredients, turn on timer, go do email with a glass of wine — a risotto becomes something quite manageable on a weeknight. The above process just seemed more involved as we were documenting how the T-Fal supplied recipe needed fixing.
So we’re willing to defend the point that these machines are very useful gadgets, because they become sous-chefs :}