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Traditional Tahdig – Persian rice crust

Traditional Tahdig - the crust of basmati rice

Tahdig means: “the crust of rice at the bottom of the pot” and there are 2 ways of preparation.

  • Traditional/Formal style (this recipe): it’s more laborious because we drain the rice. This type of preparation is common for celebrations and formal occasions, or when there are guests at home.
  • Kateh style: rice cookes in the pot in 1 hour. It’s easier to cook since we don’t drain anything. The rice will be slightly sticky.

Important: you’ll need a thick bottom nonstick pot to distributes the heat evenly. If the bottom is thin the rice will burn.

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Ingredients | 4-5 servings

  • 500g/17.6oz Basmati rice
  • 2 tbsp Salt
  • 2-3 tbsp Ghee/clarified butter
  • 2 knobs of Butter

video recipe:


Preparation

Wash rice until the color of water, is no longer opaque.

In a big pot boil water and add salt. (just like pasta water).

– Add rice to the pot and wait till it grows in size and floats on water.

When basmati rice cooks it grows in size

– Save 1 cup of rice’s starchy-water, and add a knob of butter to melt (set aside for later).

Drain the rice, don’t rinse! (to maintain the taste and salt).

– In a nonstick pot, on low heat, add 2-3 tbsp of ghee or oil, followed by 2 knobs of butter. (a greasy bottom helps to have a thicker tahdig and avoids burnings).

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– Sprinkle all the rice, and at the end create some holes in it, which helps the humidity to come out more easily.


Pour in the mix of butter and starchy water (that we saved before).

– Cover the lid with a clean kitchen cloth (in persian it called “Damkoni” دمکنی). It absorbs the humidity, preventing water to return on rice and helps the tahdig becomes crunchy.

– Cook on low heat for at least⏳ 1 hour. If you like a thicker and darker tahdig cook for 2-3 hours.

When the basmati rice comes off the edges, and its color turns to a golden brown, that’s when the Tahdig is ready!

➡️ Grip both pot and serving plate together and overturn. The tahdig falls on the plate and it’s ready to be served.


Notes

  • It’s important to save a bit of starchy water from rice to have a beautiful compact tahdig
  • The tahdig takes around 1 hour to cook but its color will be pale. Longer cookings makes tahdig more colorful.
  • Long-grain rice is usually used for tahdig like: Jasmin, Thai, Basmati, etc.
  • It is more authentic, if you serve the rice with saffron.
  • People serve tahdig with stews (ghormeh sabzi, khoresh gheimeh, baghali ghatogh, zereshkpolo etc.) but it tastes good even with a fried egg! 🙂

2 hours tahdig
3 hours tahdig

noosh-e-jan ☺️

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Bahareh: Welcome to Foodcraftz! I'm Bahareh, a cook who started this food blog as a side project. Hope you find the recipes interesting I try to add more every month. Thanks for visiting!

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