Risotto too grainy

Question

I've been toying with my risotto recipe but I still can't make rice nice and smooth. Here is what I use;

Cup Arborio rice (from Whole Foods)
Kettle and Fire Chicken Broth 32oz
small diced carrot, garlic, celery, shallots leeks
slices of shiitake (about 3-4 whole shiitake)

I make risotto as follows;

1. Sauté carrots,and celeries and then garlic, shallots and leeks.
2. Add 1 cup of rice, sautéed a bit and add white wine.
3. When wine is almost gone, start adding a scoop of hot(almost boiling) stock.
4. Stir occasionally and add additional stock when the precious stock is almost gone.
5. Add butter and seasoning.

The whole thing takes about 30-40min. At the end, I check and make sure risotto is nicely done. It gets creamy but when I taste it, arborio rice is still grainy; it is almost like a grain of rice breaks down in small pieces.

I followed some of the suggestion in the previous post; How can I make my risotto less firm?

but I am still getting the same result. I'd really appreciate any pointers to this.

Answer 1

That grainy feeling is a classic sign of undercooked rice. For white risotto, you can check for doneness visually by looking for the opaque white center of the grains of rice. If the kind of risotto you're making is too colorful, you can also bite into a grain and examine the core that way.

It sounds like your liquids are evaporating too quickly before the core of some of the rice grains can properly gelatinize. Try using a shallower/wider pan, lowering the heat, using a bigger ladle for the liquids, and stirring the risotto more often. Doing these will help promote even heating of the grains.

If your risotto gets too thick really early on, you may have to add more liquid than the usual ammont so that it doesn't evaporate or get absorbed by the released starches before it gets to the actual rice. You can also cheat a little bit by adding the liquid, bringing it up to a boil, then turn off the heat and put a lid on. Let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes to absorb, then back on the heat to finish the risotto with butter and seasoning.