# Warm/Hot Vegetable dishes that can hold in a cambro?



## aladeg (Dec 4, 2014)

Looking for ideas for hot vegetable sides that are hot-box friendly for situations where we won't have any cooking equipment on-site. What do you guys do? Skip and just serve cold veg options? Other than corn which I rarely serve and whole carrots, I just haven't had good results.


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## E. Dennis van Rumund (Dec 2, 2017)

When I catered events, I had only Cambro boxes to hold the food. I would sandwich the pans, say rice pilaf or mashed potato pans, atop and below my vegetable pan. The residual heat brought up the room temp par cooked vegetable slowly and evenly up to the proper temp (at least 140) without dropping the temp of the rice pilaf to be unsafe. Vegetable variety wasn't the issue. Try it out and see what works for you.


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

Its less a matter of what veggies you can put in a hot box/cambo, 
more a question of what you CANT get away with. For instance, 
eggplant pamesana or marinara will keep fine, but breaded eggplant cutlets, 
not so much. Tempura veggies, the breading gets soggy. 
But straight veggies are fine, baked or mashed potatoes, broccoli, green beens, 
mixed veggies, corn, peas, really its wide open here. Main dishes, same.


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## aladeg (Dec 4, 2014)

Nice! I tried a variation on this with lousy results but this makes good sense. May I ask- Do you cover or leave the veg pans open? A ballpark on how much time you have without over cooking- an hour, two?



E. Dennis van Rumund said:


> When I catered events, I had only Cambro boxes to hold the food. I would sandwich the pans, say rice pilaf or mashed potato pans, atop and below my vegetable pan. The residual heat brought up the room temp par cooked vegetable slowly and evenly up to the proper temp (at least 140) without dropping the temp of the rice pilaf to be unsafe. Vegetable variety wasn't the issue. Try it out and see what works for you.


Nice


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## aladeg (Dec 4, 2014)

Unfortunately that hasn't been my experience - I've gotten grayish green beans on the other side, cauliflower that was near mush. I don't do much fried food for that reason- it's nearly impossible to transport.



meezenplaz said:


> Its less a matter of what veggies you can put in a hot box/cambo,
> more a question of what you CANT get away with. For instance,
> eggplant pamesana or marinara will keep fine, but breaded eggplant cutlets,
> not so much. Tempura veggies, the breading gets soggy.
> ...


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

Caulifliower continues to cook in a hot box, one needs to take transport time into account.
Not the hotboxes fault, its the sitting in a hot moist environments fault.
I added a bit of citric when transporting green beans, like lemon juice.
Again, not the hot boxes fault.
Theres no across-the-board way of doing things, you have to find what works, 
for your food and your equipment. Experience.


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## aladeg (Dec 4, 2014)

meezenplaz said:


> Caulifliower continues to cook in a hot box, one needs to take transport time into account.
> Not the hotboxes fault, its the sitting in a hot moist environments fault.
> I added a bit of citric when transporting green beans, like lemon juice.
> Again, not the hot boxes fault.
> ...


Fully understand this part - love my hot boxes, not blaming them! I've been at it five years now and really this is about trying to fine-tune. I've tried a number of variations, experimented with cooking times, pre and post saucing, etc, etc. Was hoping for ideas of dishes that are not so temperamental. Other than corn and whole glazed carrots.... I got nothing. Hand't considered the citric acid on the beans but will give that a try since other than discoloration, I've had decent results maintaining texture.


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

Yes its rather maddening when green beans and the like
go gray on you, theyre still perfectly edible, yet present
so terribly (people think theye been sitting for DAYS)
that you really cant in good conscience serve them.
Mixed veggies (the peas, cubed carrots type) work well
but theyre kind of informal. Broccolis forgiving enuf.
Buttered and sauted asparagus tips present and hold
well but some guests dont like them.
I dunno, my staples have always been corn, french cut beans,
mixed veg, broccoli. And peas when serving mashed potatoes,
especially at kids or school teen events.
Ill give it some more thought.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

ratatouille
garam masala roasted butternut squash
kohlrabi, carrot, kale gratin
miso glazed baby bok choy


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## jcakes (Feb 18, 2007)

There was a roasted winter root veg recipe on Epicurious that was fantastic - you roasted turnips, parsnips, potatoes, carrots, maybe even brussels sprouts and tossed them in a dill butter that I think had a touch of horseradish in it too; they held well and were excellent even when they cooled. I just tried looking on the site but can't find the recipe. I remember making it the first time from the magazine (that's a very long time ago!) for New Years Eve and caterers I shared space with used it all winter long....


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