hello this is chef john from food wishes
comm with Persian rice that's right
forget about those incredible looking
potatoes we'll get to those in a few
minutes this video is about rice and not
just any rice Persian rice and I know
one thing for sure
or should I say for Shah this is the
best technique ever invented for cooking
long grain rice so let's go ahead and
get started and for that we're going to
bring some salted water to a boil over
high heat because this is basically a
two-step method where we're going to
power boil the rice first then we're
going to steam it okay so we're going to
salt that water we're going to wait for
it to come to a boil on high heat and
while we're waiting we can go ahead and
prep our rice and for this I want you to
get a very specific kind of rice called
basmati which by the way is incredibly
easy to find in stores these days and
what we're gonna do is we're going to
toss a couple cups into a strainer and
before this goes into the boiling water
we want to go ahead and rinse it very
thoroughly to remove any excess starch
from the outside of the grains and once
that rice has been rinsed and our waters
come to a boil let's go ahead and
carefully transfer that rice into the
pot and we're going to set our timer for
seven minutes okay and we will give it a
stir a couple times during that seven
minutes all right we don't want to stick
into the bottom and by the way it's
going to take it a minute or two to come
back to a simmer so this may actually
only boil for about five minutes but
that's totally fine that's all we need
and then once our timer goes off we're
going to go ahead and drain this don't
rinse it just carefully drain it and if
everything's gone according to plan you
should have something that looks pretty
close to this which actually kind of
looks cooked but it's not this rice is
still pretty raw inside it's probably
not even halfway cooked which is exactly
how we want it for the next step so
we're just going to let that sit there
draining for another minute while we
prep our pot and what I like to do is
just rinse out whatever I use to boil
the rice which I'm going to place on
medium-high heat with a little bit of
olive oil in the bottom and this is
where things get a little weird but in a
good way as soon as that oil heats up a
little bit I'm going to cover the bottom
with slice potatoes just peeled and
sliced russet potatoes those are about a
quarter inch thick and we're just going
to cover the bottom the best we can
I'm also going to season the tops of
those potatoes with some salt and just
for fun a little pinch of ground cumin I
believe it's much more authentic to use
cumin seeds but I don't have any and
what's going to happen here these
potatoes are going to form a bay
upon which we're going to steam the rice
so cool
so once we've seasoned our potatoes and
they're sizzling very enthusiastically
on medium-high heat
we're carefully going to transfer in our
power boiled rice and I want you to be
very very gentle with this do not pack
the rice in fact there's no person
saying if you pack the rice it don't
come nice so we're just spooning it in
using the tip of the spoon to kind of
move stuff around and once all that's
been transferred in there I'm just going
to even it out as best I can at this
point we're going to do two very
critical things first turn your heat
down to low and second we're going to
add some slices of butter to the top and
at that point this is ready to cover and
steamed but we're not just going to put
the lid on before we put the lid on
we're going to put two pieces of paper
towel down first you can also use a
clean towel I believe that would be the
traditional choice and then all we need
to do is let that rice steam covered
don't peek
for forty-five minutes all right so
that's going to steam like that for 45
minutes and while we're waiting we're
going to go ahead and prep the saffron
so I'm going to go ahead and place one
pinch of saffron in the bottom of my
mortar and we're going to use this to
color a portion of the rice ensure this
stuff's crazy-expensive but you'll need
a few strands here and what we want to
do is kind of grind this down to a
powder and then we're going to add just
a little splash of hot water and what
we'll do is we'll use that to color a
portion of the rice it's going to look
so cool so all we need to do is mix that
up we'll transfer that into a small
mixing bowl and simply wait for our rice
to be done which it is so let's head
back over to the stove and when you take
off that lid in that towel you should be
looking at the most gorgeous most
perfect rice you've ever seen in your
life and not only did those potatoes
form a perfect base on which to steam
the rice but underneath they've now
caramelized and browned in that butter
and as you'll see make an incredible
garnish for this but before we can
garnish we got to serve this up so to do
that we're going to take a little bit of
the rice a couple spoons and add it to
our saffron mixture and give that a mix
and you'll see a turn from white to the
prettiest of yellows I love this step so
we'll mix that up and we'll set that
aside that's actually going to be used
for the top and then we'll go ahead and
spoon the rest of the rice into a
serving platter and sure you can just
dig everything up mix the rice with the
potatoes up to you but what I suggest is
just to spoon up the rice at this point
pile that up nice and high and then
we'll go ahead and we'll top that with
our saffron rice
which makes everything look so festive
and fun and happy I mean how you going
to be sad around this rice so we'll
scatter that over the top and then we'll
go back into the pot and we will pull
out those beautifully crusty crispy
potatoes and you'll notice even though
we didn't use a nonstick pot these come
up very easily the steam from the rice
prevents them from sticking and we'll
simply place those around our pile of
rice for some extremely hot start time
start to action I mean I would be happy
with the rice or the potato in this dish
you get both what a deal and by the way
I need that rice that also caramelized
on the bottom with the potatoes you
totally want to serve that too I was
actually gonna put it under the potatoes
before I put them on but I forgot it's
incredibly addictive and considered one
of the best parts of this dish but
anyway that's it we're going to go
around and garnish with those potatoes
and then maybe possibly we can finish up
with a little bit of chopped parsley and
that Persian rice is done what an
unbelievably fantastic looking side dish
and as I go in with the fork for the
official taste test you can really see
how amazing that texture is I mean be
careful eating this stuff next to a
window this stuff is so light it
wouldn't take much of a breeze to blow
it right off your fork and I'm just
barely exaggerating there and if you
notice there was no measuring so really
this is not a recipe at all it's a
straight technique if you follow this
very simple procedure you will get the
exact same results and as I touched on
earlier I would be happy to seeding the
rice here but then you get those bonus
potatoes crispy and crusty on one side
softened butter scented on the other
just beyond delicious and of course the
best thing about Persian rice eating it
underneath other Persian foods as I
tried to do here with a chicken fezzes
hoon was that pronunciation even close
probably not but anyways chicken stewed
with walnuts and pomegranate and while I
didn't film it I am going to film a
version featuring duck in the near
future so stay tuned for that but in the
meantime if you're a fan of perfectly
cooked rice or just delicious gorgeous
side dishes in general I really hope you
give this a try soon so head over to
food wishes comm for all the ingredient
amounts and more info as usual and as
always enjoy
you
Learn how to make Persian-style Rice! Visit http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2014/12/persian-rice-sorry-measuring-cups.html for the ingredients, more information, and many, many more video recipes. I hope you enjoy this easy Persian Rice recipe!