Persian Rice
- 2 cups long grain rice (Basmati rice)
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 14 teaspoon powdered saffron
- 5 cups water (or more)
- In a large bowl, rinse rice several times to remove any excess starch out of the grains.
- Keep rinsing until the water runs clear.
- While rinsing be careful to not touch or massage the grains too hard cause it may break the grains.
- Fill bowl with lukewarm water again and add 2 tablespoon of salt.
- Allow rice to soak for about 20 minutes while you boil water.
- *The soaking time depends on how old the rice grains are.
- The older the rice, the more soaking time.
- For the Basmati rice sold in supermarkets 20 minutes is enough, but in Iran usually rice grains are older so they need at least 3-4 hours of soaking.
- Add water to a large pot until half of its depth and bring it to a boil.
- Drain rice and add to boiling water.
- After 5-7 minutes of boiling test to see if the rice is ready.
- Rice should be hard in the center and soft on the outside.
- Also another way to see if it's ready to drain is that you will see the rice gains starting to come to the surface of the water.
- When rice is ready to drain, add one cup of cold water to the pot so it stops boiling.
- Then drain it and set aside for a minute while preparing the pot.
- Rinse out the pot that you used to boil the rice and place it on medium-high-heat.
- Add 2 tablespoon of oil to the bottom of the pot and wait until it heats up a little bit.
- Now you can add slices of potato or just use the rice for the bottom.
- Carefully transfer in the par boiled rice into the pot.
- Place the rice in a pyramid shape but be very gentle to not break the grains.
- Reduce heat and cover the lid of the pot.
- Mix 2 tablespoon oil with 4 tablespoon water.
- Wait 1-2 minutes and then remove the lid and add it on top of the rice.
- Again cover the lid, but this time before putting the lid on put two pieces of paper towel or a clean towel over the pot first and then place the lid.
- Allow it to steam for 45 minutes.
- Add 4 tablespoons of hot water to the ground saffron and let it brew while the rice cooks.
- When rice is ready, take a couple of spoons out of the pot and into a mixing bowl.
- Add the saffron mixture to it and give it a mix until rice turn from white to yellow.
- Now spoon the rice on a serving platter and top it with saffron rice.
long grain rice, salt, vegetable oil, powdered saffron, water
Taken from www.food.com/recipe/persian-rice-521636 (may not work)