Welcome!

To this new space on the blog where I will be sharing more of The Audio Dad Chef delicious food creations. He is more of a behind the scenes guy so you will not be seeing much of him. However he has been sharing all of his cooking tips and tricks with me for years now. I normally just take the photos and eat his delicious creations. Now that we have been on quarantine he has been busy in the kitchen testing out new recipes and keeping our bellies full. This time around I will be sharing all those photos and receipes with you all. Thank you for stopping by our kitchen and cooking with us!

Chelow, Tahdid, Persian Rice with Golden Crust whatever you call it. It is UH-mazing!!

One of the dishes we recently made during quarantine was Tahdig. It is a traditional Iranian dish of plain fluffy rice pilaf with a golden-brown crust. Tahdig is the pan fried portion of the rice producing this golden crust that litterally translate to “botton of the pot and is pronounced Tah- DEEG. I have been wanting to give this dish a try since seeing how much the cast of Shahs of Sunset talk about TAHDIG and it’s amaziness! The Audio Dad Chef came across a simple recicpe on America’s Test Kitchen one evening and made my food dreams come true.

According to him follow the recipe to the T and you can recreate this golden crispy rice too!

Ingredients:

2 Cups Basmati Rice

Salt

1 Tablespoon + 1 Cup Vegtable Oil

1/4 Plain Greek Yogurt

1 1/2 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds

2 TBS unsalted Butter ( cut into 8 cubes)

1/4 cup minched fresh parsley

Instructions:

In the original receipe it suggest using Basmati rice for its nuttiness and texture. Since we only had Jasmine rice on hand we endedup using that instead.

Using a fine-mesh strainer rinse your rice throughly until the water runs clear. In a medium bowl place rice and 1 tablespoon of salt cover with 4 cups of hot tap water. Stir to disolve salt. Drain after 15 min in fine mesh strainer. Rinisng your rice is very Important!
Using a Dutch oven bring 8 cups of water to a boil over high heat. Add rice and 2 tablespoons of salt stirring until rice is mostly tender with a slight bite in center.
Drain parboiled rice in fine mesh strainer rishe with cold water to shock and stop the cooking porcess. Also rinse and dry pot removing any resuial starch. Then oil bottom and 1 inch up the sides of pot with 1 tablespoon of oil.
In a meduim bowl wish together the remaining 1/4 cup oil, yogurt, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Adding 2 cups of parboiled rice to mixture stir to combine. Spread yogurt rice mixture onto the bottom of the pot. Make sure to pack it down well.
Stir the balance of the cumin into the remaining rice and create a mound in the center of the pot on top of the yogurt – rice mixture. Poke 8 equally spaced holes into the small hill then place 1 butter cube into each hole. Drizzle 1/3 cup water over rice mound.
Using a clean dish towel wrap the pot lid and cover tightly. Make sure to secure the towel and keep away from heat. Cook over medium – high heat until rice on bottom is crackling and steam is coming from the sides of the pot. Rotate pot halfway through for even cooking.
Reduce heat to meduim -low heat continue to cook until rice is tender and fluffy and the crust is golden brown. This should take 30-35 mintues longer. Remove cover pot from the heat and place on a damp dish towel set in rimmer baking; let stand for 5 mins.
Stir the parsley into the rice making sure not disturb the crust on the bottom of pot. Season with salt for taste. Spoon rice onto serving platter.
Loosen the edges of the crust from the pot using a thin metal spatula. We found that using a fish spatula worked best to break up the crust into large peices. Transfer peices onto the serving platter arranging on top of rice. Sprinkle remaining parsley to garnish and serve. (or if you are feeling brave and want to try flipping the crust over onto the platter so it is in one piece. Then send me a photo!)