Go to the Recipe: Umami Risotto
Did you guys try substituting malted barley for the malted emmer? You can buy a million varieties of malted barley at a homebrew shop... all different toast levels up through nearly charcoal. It's cheap and it lasts forever too, if you buy it unmilled.
You should try it and post results!! That could potentially cut out the malting process for a quicker (albeit probably not as good) solution. Though texturally, emmer has more chew and body to it than barley. So the barley may break down and be too soft by the end of this recipe. 🤷 Who knows
This recipe was insanely salty, and could probably do with half the salt listed. What flavors we could taste around the salt were great, but the amount of salt made this almost inedible.
The 100g of olive oil was also overkill, and could probably to with about 50-60g. Ended up having to skim oil out as it was just pooling all over the place.
The instructions are also pretty unclear on steps 2 to 4. As it's written, you pull out a new pan in step 4 to cook the farro, and the onion (along with its pan) seemingly disappears. You can make the assumption that this is cooked like any other risotto and the extra 40g oil and farro are added to the pan with the onion, result being way too much olive oil.
Will definitely make it again, but make some pretty significant adjustments.
Just made this tonight with nutritional yeast and veggie stock to keep it vegan, it was so worth the 3 days of germination! Will do again!
MS, I had the same question. Have you tried this with barley malt yet? I imagine you'd need something that was huskless. Perhaps a carafa special I or maybe wheat malt?
I enjoyed the challenge and learning of this recipe, but perplexed at the results.
Malting my own malted grain was successful and truly fun. I purchased the exact name brand of farro and used that in that recipe.
I'm not one to complain about recipes as too many factors come into play, such as name brands differ in their level of saltiness for chicken stock, etc. While for my tastes, I should have added half the salt and adjusted accordingly; however, this is the first time I've cooked Farro in a similar method to risotto. As per the instructions, I took this to the 1 hour point and found that the texture was still quite chewy. I'm not entirely sure if another 30 mins would have taken this to a respectable texture. I'm curious if the chewy texture was truly the intended outcome? Anyone have a different experience with this recipe?
Remember this is a whole grain and when you compare to traditional risotto it will be chewier than hulled rice. A similar comparison would be how brown rice has a different texture than white rice. Seasoning is always a taste as you go process and the recipe is intended to use stock that is salt free. I always used vegetable stock that I made from scratch. Anytime you make stock at home or in a restaurant it will be unsalted compared to store bought which is always salted. So, whole grain emmer will always be on the firmer and chewy side of textures.
Guys I want to make this recipe, but for 16 people. I need some help! I have 1 Kilo of malted Farro, i'm looking for a portion of 60g each (it's a tasting menu). But my problem is.... how can i cook a such large bath of "risotto"?
You're going to need a larger pot! Or cook In a full hotel pan over 2 burners.
In the restaurant I would cook this in a large batch in a Rondo braising pot.
Done guys. It was great. Little less salt, finished with a parsley-pesto.
And I used a malted emmer in a homebrewers shop... no doubt next time I'm gonna to malt my own grain
Matt, do you prefer this recipe with the grain smoked, or unsmoked?
Matthew, my grain malted fully in 24 hours. Crazy! I’m about to make this; do you prefer the grains smoked (vs unsmoked) for the risotto dish?
Not sure what I did wrong, but the grain never plumped and softened even after two hours of stirring and added water. Result was so hard/chewy that it was not enjoyable. How do I get that amazing looking result in the photos?
