Preparing Rice the Persian Way

In response to numerous requests from many of my friends in Washington, DC and other part of the world who have been enjoying my cooking past fifteen years or so, here is the recipe for preparing Persian rice serving 5 to 6 people.

Not to worry if you don’t get it right the first time. It will take you several tries to get it right. Preparing the Persian rice is a very delicate and time consuming process. If you are a man, you need to treat the process as you are about to make love to a beautiful woman with beautiful leg, curve, and the whole nine yard for two to four hours Can you handle that?

If you are a woman, just think of me and a bottle of Shiraz red wine, you do just fine

Stuff you need:
. A pot
. A cloth
. Drainer
. Basmati Rice. You can use any other type of rice. You get a better result with Basmati Rice.
. Cooking or Olive oil
. A picture of Angelina Jolie

1. Pour five cups of rice into the pot and wash it a few times with cold water as shown.

2. Fill the pot up with cold water till there about 2 inches of water on top of the rice.

3. Put the pot on the stove on high. Stir it once every 2 or 3 minutes so the rice doesn’t stick together. This might take about 15 minutes. Once the rice is a little bit soft, but not too soft, take the pot off the stove.

During this process if the rice not soft enough yet, but you notice not much water left in the pot (the two inches of water are gone and you see the rice now), add more water to the pot. Always make sure there are some a little bit of water on top of the rice.

4. Pour the rice into a drainer under running cold water. Make sure to pour enough cold water on the rice till it is not hot anymore. To check out the coldness, put your finger into the rice. Just make sure the hotness in the rice is gone. Keep the rice in the drainer for a few minutes till most of the water is drained out

5. While the rice is in drainer, pour a little more than 1/4 inch mix of oil and water (60% oil, 40% water) into the pot and put it on the stove on high.

6. Add a little bit of salt to the oil/water. Using a spatula, start taking the rice from the drainer and pour it into the pot. For every two or three spatula, use a little bit of salt on the rice. Keep repeating this process till all the rice are back into the pot.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once all the rice are back in the pot, make sure to bring the edges to the middle to make it like a small hill. Do not flatten the surface. This is to make sure the hot steam penetrates through the rice so they do not stick together

7. Put the cover back on and let the rice on high for about 3-5 minutes.

8. Take the top off and wrap it up with a clean cloth and put it back on the pot. Turn the stove on low or medium this time. The purpose of the cloth is to trap in the steam made inside the pot so the rice doesn’t turn sticky.

9. Let it on low or medium for 1 to 3 hours. The longer you keep the rice on low or medium, the crispier the rice in the bottom of the pot becomes. I usually keep the pot on the stove for about 3 hours. I suggest you try it once with one hour, and then two hours, etc to get the sense of it.

10. Turn the stove off and start taking the cooked rice out of the pot into a large dish or tray using a spatula and spread it. DO NOT pour the rice into the plate at once. Keep digging the rice out of the pot till you notice the crispy rice stick to the bottom of the pot.

11. The crispy rice is called “tah dig”. “tah” means bottom in Farsi, and “Dig” means pot. Hold the outside bottom of the pot under the cold water for 30 seconds so the tah dig comes off the pot easier. Then, use a spoon to take the tah dig out of the pot.

You can also serve the tah dig as an appetizer with yogurt.

Feel free to mix one spoon pf of butter on top of the rice. The butter makes it tastier. But not necessary.

Referring to step 6, you can also put sliced potato at the bottom of the pot which will give you the potato tah dig like shown in this picture

Here is a picture of PERFECT tah dig

You can serve the rice with fish, chicken, lamb, stew, etc.

Bone Appétit

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