THE DISH
Tahdig, Iran
PLATE UP
Don’t let the obvious simplicity of tahdig idiot you. To the uninitiated, this most likely simply looks like burnt rice – and the way good can burnt rice be? We’re right here to let you know that burnt rice could be very, excellent. Extremely good. Life-changingly good.
Take into account the way in which this important Iranian dish is ready. Persian basmati – already a candidate for the world’s tastiest rice – is steamed or boiled till about half-cooked. A few of that rice is then combined within the backside of a dry pan with butter, yoghurt and typically saffron, unfold into an excellent layer, after which topped with the remainder of the rice.
The whole thing then cooks till the higher rice is completely fluffy, and the decrease rice has magically shaped right into a crunchy, salty and barely tangy layer generally known as tahdig. This layer is the prized titbit on any desk, and the hallmark of an excellent Iranian prepare dinner.
Tahdig – appears easy, however is definitely very subtle.
FIRST SERVE
A dish as iconic as tahdig deserves a whimsical creation story, and it has one. Rice at all times appeared on the menus of the Qajar kings of the Persian Empire within the early 1800s, and the servants who ready that rice would normally eat the burnt leftovers within the backside of the pan. Legend has it that at some point, these servants argued so loudly over who would get the scraps that the king overhead, and demanded they be delivered to him as a substitute. The remaining is historical past. Whatever the fact of that, by the early 1900s, two well-known Persian cookbooks included recipes for tahdig.
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