Persian Rice - Tahchin - Plain Style

Ingredients

• 2 cups of basmati rice
• 2 Tbsp of yogurt
• 0.5 tspn of saffron
• pinch of sugar to grind the safron
• salt to taste
• 50 grams unsalted butter
• vegtable oil

Preparation

1Measure out your rice and place in a bowl. Note the measuring cup in the above picture came with my Persian rice cooker and it is the one that I always use for measuring rice.Wash rice a few times until the water looks clear. This is a very important step in cooking Persian rice. Essentially, what you are doing is removing the starch from the rice. Add some salt and let the rice soak for a few hours. It is generally strongly believed that rice should rest over night for best results. Now, let me tell you, the world will not come to an end if you don’t soak your rice.

2When you are ready to cook bring 6 cups of water to a boil. I don’t like to take chances so my rule of thumb is 3 cups of water per cup of rice. You will be amazed how the rice soaks up the water.

3In a mortar add sugar and saffron and grind until saffron turns into a powder.

4Once your water starts boiling, take 2 tbsp of the hot water and add it to the saffron and sugar powder. Then salt the boiling water.

Think of this part of the process as cooking pasta. You salt the water, add the pasta, cook until done, and then drain. We do the same thing here: place the rice in the boiling water and cook for about 10 minutes. This is the first crucial moment of rice cooking. Make sure that you stir the rice a couple of times from bottom up during the cooking time. Once the 10 minutes are close taste your rice. It should be soft, not hard or mushy. It should be longer than it was before it went into the pot, but it should not be moments from falling apart.

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While your rice cooks, place yogurt in a mixing bowl, add saffron water to it and mix well. Please note that it is best to not use yogurt that it is too sour for this recipe. or add some sugar or honey

6Once your rice is ready drain in a colander and give a quick rinse with cold water to stop additional cooking.

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Add about 8 tablespoons of rice to the yogurt mixture.

8Add a very thin layer of water to the bottom of the pot. Essentially, what you are looking for is a thin layer that covers the whole bottom of the pot. Add oil and a little butter, I would say for this recipe 1 tbsp, more if you are using a bigger pot.Give it all a shake so that the water and oil, butter get a little mixed up. Cover the bottom of the pan with rice mixed with yogurt. Pile up the rest of the rice on top in the shape of a pyramid.

9Important With the back of your spatula make 4-5 holes, making sure that you don’t go through the rice and yogurt mix. This is done for steaming purposes.

10Cover and cook on high for 7 minutes, NO MORE THAN 8 minutes.After 8 minutes place a towel over the lid of the pot, cover, and cook on medium low for 1 hour. At this point you are steaming your rice.There are two ways to serve Persian rice. Here is the first way (my favorite way): Place your serving dish on top of the pot. Flip the pot while holding the dish against it firmly. Remove the pot.

11Optional: Instead of adding all of the saffron water to the yogurt, reserve about 1 tsp of it. Add a couple of spoons of rice and mix well. Place the mixture on top of the rest of the rice. Then proceed with the cooking process. Once your rice is ready, remove the rice with saffron from the top of the pot and place in a bowl. Plate the rest of the rice and then place the saffron rice on top