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Hi all

I'm possibly doing a curry to go with a buffet for a party. Its not being held at home so I was wondering how to keep it warm thru the evening. I was thinking maybe a slow cooker for the curry but how do I keep rice warm?
Have read a few horror stories about rice and food poisoning so I'm now thinking maybe a pan of stew?

Any thoughts would be gratefully appreciated

Many thanks

TheMrs

Warmed up rice is the best for food poisoning. Nothing better really. A nice pan of scouse on the cooker can last for days and still be as good as the day it was concocted :-)

Many people, including me, believe that the full flavour of scouse only starts to appear the day after cooking and improves the longer you leave it. At home it might be reheated a few times over four or five days. If I were serving it to the public, I would be legally obliged to store it in a fridge before thoroughly reheating, and then only for two days before I must discard. This is the due dilligence you must show when cooking for the public, if you're serving four day old scouse and people get sick because of it then you won't have a legal leg to stand on.

You'll want a Bain Marie or chafing dish & fuel to keep the scouse/curry and/or rice warm.

Rice is a high risk food but of course you can serve it without poisoning everybody! You just need to minimise the risks.

Personally I would always keep the rice cooking time as close to the serving time as possible, as in cook > drain > fluff > bring to table asap because it's safest and fresh tastes, looks and feels the best.

If it's not possible to serve the rice immediately, try and keep it as hot as possible before serving hot, (as in straight into the very preheated chaffing dish and into a fast car to the serving table asap).

If you must store before use, allow it to cool and get it airtight and into a fridge asap and reheat it as quickly and thoroughly as possible on the same day. If cooking rice for the public, I would discard any unused cooked rice from my fridges every night and start fresh in the morning.

Don't ever put any hot foodstuff straight into a fridge, wait until it is completely cooled first, then cover, then fridge or freeze.

Leave it too long in the chafing dish and it'll start to dry out around the edges. Mixing the rice or adding a water to the bottom of the dish to steam and keep it moist will make it become claggy, (not a word I get to use often enough). Another reason to keep the cooking to service time as short as possible.

Overcooking it will also cause it to become claggy.

Storing cooked rice at room temperature is the ideal environment for Bacillus Cereus to multiply and quickly reach toxic levels.. after this point reheating it won't be good enough to stop people getting sick.

If you have no professional experience and are going to make a habit of cooking for parties or making hot & cold buffets then a Basic Food Hygiene course is a good idea and probably a must. Wirral Met College do them and they're short and not to difficult to complete.

Don't be scared of rice. Good luck.

Zipper is right. Warmed up rice is a real no-no imho. I know of two people who were laid low by what turned out to be re-heated rice at buffet type do's. I'm not a scouse fan, but it sure is a lot safer !!

Do a curry and serve it with mini naan breads and also do the scouse and serve with crusty bread then you have the best of both worlds.

Thanks for the two ideas. Will adopt them myself.

pretty much all rice steamers come with a keep warm function,
we bought a Tefal one from Costco it does all different kinds of rice, keeps warm, is a steamer and a slow cooker too and have never done us wrong