Tahdig

Inspired by recipes and tips from Jew-ish by Jake Cohen, Persiana by Sabrina Gayour, Samin Nosrat, and an online cooking class I took with Shayma Saadat.

There are a variety of ways to make Persian Chelo ba Tahdig (rice with a crispy layer) which is a recipe that's more about the technique than ingredients. It took me three times until I got it right, but once you do, you're set for life.

I gave some notes in the post about the type of skillet to use. I used a good-quality non-stick skillet with a lid that fits. You also want to have a large, flat platter, cutting board, or baking sheet handy for turning out the final rice dish.

Do read the recipe through once before making it. It's not difficult but requires few steps, including rinsing, draining, and parboiling the rice, and making a saffron infusion with yogurt. Read the recipe through first and gathering these utensils first will make it a little easier.

As mentioned in the post, the saffron really does add a lovely color and flavor, but if it's out of your budget or not available, you can make it without it. If you really like saffron, feel free to increase the amount to 1 teaspoon.

Course Side Dish

Keyword rice, tahdig, tahdig, rice

Servings servings

2 cups (390g) basmati rice
2 tablespoons plus 1 to 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt or flaky sea salt
1/2 teaspoon saffron
3 tablespoons (total) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons neutral-tasting vegetable oil
1/4 cup (60ml) plain yogurt, (not nonfat)

Wash the rice: Put the rice in a large bowl and add enough cold water to cover it well. Swirl it around with your hand, then drain the rice through a colander or large mesh strainer. Do that several more times until the water is almost clear with little to no chalky residue floating in it. It'll take about 5 to 7 times of rinsing and draining to get the rice to that point.
Put the washed and drained rice back in the bowl and cover it with cold water. Let it sit for 1 hour, then drain.
Parboil the rice: Bring a pot of water (about 4 quarts/liters) to a boil with 2 tablespoons of salt in it. When it comes to a boil, add the drained rice and cook until the rice is just slightly softened and a bit tender, about 5 to 6 minutes.
Prepare the saffron: While the rice is parboiling, in a medium bowl, use your fingers to crush the saffron. (If you have a mortar and pestle, you can use that to crush the saffron.) Add 2 tablespoons of hot water from the parboiling rice pot to the saffron and let the saffron infuse in the water for 15 minutes. Stir in the yogurt, vegetable oil, and 1 or 2 teaspoons of salt, depending on your preference for salt. (I use 2 teaspoons.)
As soon as the rice is cooked, drain the rice in a colander or strainer and rinse under cold water, diffusing the water with your hand or use the sprayer attachment (if your kitchen faucet has one) to cool the rice quickly and thoroughly. Set the rice aside to drain well.
Make the rice and Tahdig: Melt the butter in a 10-inch (25cm) non-stick skillet. Spoon 1 tablespoon of that melted butter into the saffron yogurt mixture and swirl or spread the rest of the butter so it's in an even layer in the pan.
Mix 2 cups (250g) of the cooked rice into the saffron yogurt mixture then add it to the skillet in a relatively even layer in the skillet, but don't pack it down.
Spread the rest of the cooled rice over the saffron rice in the skillet in an even layer. Use the handle of a wooden spoon (or another kitchen tool with a round or oval handle), held vertically, to make 6 indentations in the rice, evenly spaced apart, which will help the steam escape from the bottom layer so it crisps up.
Wrap the lid for the pan with a kitchen towel, making sure to tuck or tie the towel up and tightly around the lid to make sure there's no overhang where the flame could be able to reach it. (You want to avoid catching it on fire.) Turn the heat to medium-high and cook for 8 minutes. Then turn the heat down to just above the lowest setting and continue to cook, turning the pan a quarter turn on the burner, every 10 minutes, until the Tahdig is ready, which will take about 45 minutes on a gas burner. (An electric burner will take longer.)
To give you a clue to when it's done, while controversial, you can lift the lid to peek inside but try not to let any condensation from the lid drip into the rice. If you want to do that, about 30 minutes into cooking, slide a small silicone spatula in between the side of the pan and the edge of the rice. If you see the rice at the bottom of the pan turning brown around the edges, that's a sign that you're on your way to Tahdig success!
When ready, remove the lid and place a serving platter upside down over the top of the skillet. Firmly grasp both the skillet and the platter and flip both simultaneously over. Lift off the skillet and serve.

Notes

Serving: You can serve this with a variety of Persian dishes, such as Khoresht (chicken and eggplant with saffron), with a yogurt-cucumber sauce such as Maast-o khiar, or with Ghormeh sabzi, a Persian stew filled with herbs. It also can be served with grilled or roasted poultry, fish, vegetables, or meat. While perhaps untraditional, it was nice alongside the spiced kefta I made recently.