Persian Jeweled Rice Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the three main Persian rice dishes describe one? ›

Final answer: The three primary Persian rice dishes are Chelow, Polo, and Tahdig, with Chelow being a steamed rice dish with a crispy crust known as tahdig.

Wash the rice and soak it.

This helps get rid of starch so the rice doesn't get sticky while shortening the cook time. Parboil the rice in salted water (as you would prepare pasta) until it is al dente—firm in the middle and soft on the outside.

The edges of the crust should be golden, and the rice should be cooked completely through. There isn't a way to tell what tahdig will look like until you flip it, so I prefer to err on the side of overbrowning, but if that makes you uncomfortable, pull the rice after about 35 total minutes in the pan.

Turmeric, safflower, and annatto are all common substitutes for saffron. How much to substitute will be up to the spice you end up using. If you stick with turmeric, I would recommend adding about ½ teaspoon to the water mixture in place of the saffron.

The ten dishes introduced here – Ghormeh Sabzi, Fesenjan, Chelow Kabab, Ash Reshteh, Bademjan, Khoresh-e Karafs, Baghali Polo, Zereshk Polo, and Joojeh Kabab – represent the diverse gastronomy of Iran and the depth of its food culture.

What is Sumac? Sumac is derived from the dried and ground berries of the wild sumac flower and is used in Persian cooking as a seasoning for a number of dishes including kababs, rice and salads. It is a tangy spice with a sour and acidic flavour reminiscent of lemon juice.

For every cup of rice, you add 1.5 cups of water – see table below. Non-Stick Saucepan: Use a non-stick saucepan with a lid. For 2 cups of rice, use a 20 cm diameter saucepan with 2.5 litre capacity. Using a non-stick pan allows you to flip the rice out so you can serve the Kateh as in the picture above.

Serving: You can serve this with a variety of Persian dishes, such as Khoresht (chicken and eggplant with saffron), with a yogurt-cucumber sauce such as Maast-o khiar, or with Ghormeh sabzi, a Persian stew filled with herbs. It also can be served with grilled or roasted poultry, fish, vegetables, or meat.

If your rice kernels are sticking together when you don't want them to, you may not have rinsed the grains thoroughly enough before cooking. When rinsing rice in a sieve, let water run over the rice as you agitate it. Keep rinsing until the water straining from the bottom of the sieve runs practically clear.

Tahdig, pronounced tah-deeg, literally means "bottom of the pot" in Persian/Farsi. And it refers to a beautiful, pan-fried Persian rice that is fluffy and buttery on the inside with a perfectly golden crust, which is the layer at the bottom of the pot.

How do you know if rice is cooked enough? ›

Check the rice is cooked at the end by trying a grain - this should also be indicated by the appearance of small holes on the surface and all the water having been absorbed. Keep cooking for another couple of mins if it isn't quite ready, then turn the heat off.

You have to use a non-stick pot or a deep non-stick pan. A well-seasoned cast iron works too. DO NOT USE A STAINLESS STEEL POT. To get the most tahdig, try to use a pot or pan with a flat bottom and one large enough that will give the rice plenty of room to expand.

While there is no one herb that can replace saffron, using several herbs and spices in combination can help create a similar taste profile and colour. Turmeric and Paprika are the most common substitute combinations.

Best Saffron Substitutes

Turmeric is a member of the ginger family is the most widely recommended saffron substitute. It is similar enough that unscrupulous spice merchants have used it to adulterate real saffron. It provides a yellow color similar to that of saffron (when cooked).

Since such a small part of the flower is used, it takes 75,000 saffron flowers to make one pound of saffron spice. The small amount of saffron spice per plant, along with the fact that harvesting must be done manually, leads to saffron's being majorly expensive.

Rice is broadly divided into three categories based on grain length—long, medium, and short. The length of the grain is indicative of the texture of the cooked rice and, consequently, its traditional preparation and use.

Rice is often characterized as one of three varieties - long grain, medium grain, or short grain rice, which refers to the length and shape of the grain. The grain size affects the texture of the rice, therefore long grain, medium grain, and short grain rice are all used for different cooking applications.

There are different types of Persian rice in Iran such as Gerde, Domsiah (black tail, because it's black at one end), Champa, Doodi (smoked rice), Lenjan, and Tarom. Cooking methods also differ depending on the food type or the occasion in which the food is going to serve.

There are generally four different methods for cooking rice: steaming, boiling, pilaf and risotto, all of which produce very different results.