Traditional Tahdig – Persian rice crust

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.

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.

– 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).

– 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! 🙂

noosh-e-jan ☺️