Persian Rice - How to Make Perfect Steamed Rice

Hello , this is Chef John from food wishes dot com 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 shaw , 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 gonna bring some salted water to a boil over high heat because this is basically a two step method where we're gonna power boil the rice first , then we're gonna steam it .

OK .

So we're gonna salt that water .

We're gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna set our timer for seven minutes .

Ok .

And we will give it a stir a couple of times during that seven minutes .

All right , we don't want to stick to the bottom .

And by the way , it's gonna 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 gonna 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 side .

It's probably not even halfway cooked , which is exactly how we want it for the next step .

So we're just gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna cover the bottom with sliced potatoes just peeled and sliced russet potatoes .

Those are about a quarter inch thick and we're just gonna cover the bottom the best we can .

I'm also gonna 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 gonna happen here , these potatoes are gonna form a base upon which we're gonna 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 gonna 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 Persian 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 gonna even it out as best I can .

At this point , we're gonna do two very critical things .

First , turn your heat down to low and second , we're gonna add some slices of butter to the top .

And at that point , this is ready to cover and steam , but we're not just gonna put the lid on before we put the lid on .

We're gonna 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 peak for 45 minutes .

All right .

So that's gonna steam like that for 45 minutes .

And while we're waiting , we're gonna go ahead and prep the saffron .

So I'm gonna go ahead and place one pinch of saffron in the bottom of my mortar .

And we're gonna use this to color a portion of the rice .

And sure this stuff's crazy expensive , but you only need a few strands here .

And what we wanna do is kind of grind this down to a powder and then we're gonna 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 gonna 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 and 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 gotta serve this up .

So to do that , we're gonna 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 it 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 gonna 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 could just dig everything up , mix the rice with the potatoes up to you .

But what I suggest is just to spoon out 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 are you gonna 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 non-stick 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 on starch 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 , any of 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 gonna 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 with 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 noticed 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 just eating the rice here .

But then you get those bonus potatoes crispy and crusty on one side , soft and 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 is that pronunciation even close .

Probably not .

But anyways chicken stewed with walnuts and pomegranate .

And while I didn't film it , I am gonna 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 dot com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy .