This complex Persian rich dish combines layers of shrimps, chickpeas, and spices to create an impressive occasional meal
Ingredients for 4 people
Rice
200 Grams Persian or Basmati rice
2 Teaspoons salt
Tadig
1 Medime size yellow or russet potato (150 grams)
2 TBS cooking oil
1 TBS butter
Sauce
350 Grams cooked and pilled shrimps (salad shrimps are preferred)
200 Grams red onions diced in 2-3 mm
100 gram small split yellow chickpeas
50 Grams butter
2 Table spoons olive oil
½ Teaspoon smoked paprika
½ Teaspoon turmeric
¼ Teaspoon cinnamon
½ Teaspoons salt
¼ Tea spoon black pepper (optional)
Pinch of saffron powder dissolved in 2 table spoon of hot water
Juice of half a lemon
Directions
Preparation
In a one litre bowl soak chickpeas in cold water over night
Wash the rice in a 5-litre skillet 3 to 4 times until clear. Soak in 2-litre of cold water mixed with 2 table spoons of salt and preserve. You may do this step ahead of time and keep the soaked rice in a cool place. The rice has more time to absorb water and salt and becomes tastier.
Peel the potato, cut in 2-3 mm thick slices, and soak in cold water to release the excess of starch.
Sauce
Set the heat to medium, add 2 table spoons of olive oil in a 5-litre skillet, then add onions. Fry for 5 minutes stirring occasionally until soft. Add seasoning, stir, and let the seasoning flavours diffuse.
Add shrimps to the skillet and cook for few minutes until shrimps absorbed the seasoning flavour.
Reduce the heat to low, add drained chickpeas and 1 cup of water. Cover the skillet and cook for at least 30 minutes or until the juices thickens and the chickpeas are cooked. Keep eye on it and add more water if needed. Then add butter, lemon juice, salt, pepper, stir, turn off the heat, and preserve.
Rice
Set the heat to high and boil the soaked rice in another 5-litre skillet for 5 minutes or until the rice is cooked.
Be careful and do not overcook the rice, otherwise the rice grains would be disintegrated. Also note that the under cooked rice is not tasty. A well cooked rice grain is solid but fluffy. One needs some experience to identify the optimum cooking point of a rice grain and, with the experience, you can do it by eye. It should be also noted that the cooking point of a rice grain varies form one type of rice to another. This is the basic rule; The rice is ready when the rice grains expand 2-3 times in size and appeared to float on the surface of boiling water.
Drain the rice in a strainer and rinse with cold water. Taste the rice and make sure that it is not too salty. Rinse more to remove the saltiness.
Tahdig
Tahdig is a delicious crispy layer of fried potatoes flavoured with sauce and rice. It can be also made, in a Persian recipe, as a simple rice layer or sometimes with pita breads or layers of flat vegetable leafs. A crispy layer of fried ingredient flavoured with the sauce.
Put back the skillet on a medium heat, add 2 table spoons of cooking oil, lay down the sliced potatoes evenly on the bottom, and season slightly with salt and pepper.
Assembly
We will build the meal with 3 layer of rice and 2 layers of sauce one after each other over the tahdig.
Spread 1/3 of rice evenly over the tahdig. Make sure not to displaced the sliced potatoes.
Add another layer with 1/2 of the sauce spreading evenly. Repeat the layering for the rest of rice and sauce.
Pour evenly the dissolved saffron on the last rice layer, reduce the heat to low, and continue to cook for another 30 minutes. This 30 minute is a little imprecise and depends on many parameters including but not limited to the skillet size and its bottom thickness, the real heat produced by the cooking plate, and the thickness of sliced potatoes (tahdig). Therefore, you should keep eye on it and check occasionally.
Enjoy it!
Recent Comments