Khoresh Gheimeh with Saffron Rice
* 2 onions (small to medium sized, white or yellow work. Thinly sliced, and then cut each slice in half)
* 1 lb. Stew meat (lamb, veal or beef) cut into 1/2 inch pieces
* 5 TBSP. Oil (I use one 'swoosh' of Olive Oil
* 6 whole dried Persian limes (These are actually dried lemons, I don't know why they call them limes)
* 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 1/2 TBSP. turmeric
* 2 TBSP. Tomato paste
* 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into slicks (I suggest going to McDonalds, or whatever place has skinny fries and buying a regular sized order of fries. Spending that extra 99 cents will save you 2 messy dishes and 30 extra minutes)
* 1 cup oil for deep frying (ignore this if you buy fries already made)
* 1/3 cup yellow split peas
In a large non-stick pot, brown meat & onions in 3 tablespoons oil (or a swoosh!). Add dried Persian limes, salt, pepper, turmeric. Saute for 2 minutes longer. Pour in 1 1/2 cups water and tomato paste (I get the water hot and stir paste into water, then add to the pot to make mixing easier). Bring to a boil (boil for around 5 minutes). Cover pot, turn heat to medium/low (from 1-10, cook it on 3 or 4) and cook for 45 minutes.
Cook yellow split peas in 2 1/2 cups of water and 1/4 teaspoon salt for 30 minutes. Drain and add to pot. Make sure you check split pea bag for ROCKS (seriously), pick out rocks and the green ones!
Serve with a generous amount of Saffron Rice, place a few fries atop the gheimeh.
For the rice, a nice lazy posted various types of rice 'crusts' (best part of persian rice is the crust. For this dish, the proper crust would be standard tahdig (nothing but the rice/butter). For other dishes, the yogurt crust is my favorite. Anyway, I'll repost her post on rice and you can pick which sounds best.
I'd suggest using 2 cups of rice (it serves 4-6 people). If you're persian or feeding a persian (as I do nightly), double the serving size of the rice. It's a long post, but worth the read. I also have a great Ghormeh Sabzi recipe (spinach, fenugreek, garlic chives and lots of yum) I can dig up.
Quote:
This is how my Persian husband and his family prepare this type of rice (chelow) with a crust. You'll need:
Rice from Iran or Basmati rice
Butter
Saffron
Salt
A heavy pot with a tight fitting lid - Le Creuset dutch ovens are ideal
A wooden spoon with a long thin round handle
A tea towel
First, rinse basmati rice until water runs clear and soak for at least 30 min. Drain into a wire mesh strainer and rinse again. 2 cups is a reasonable amount for 4-6 people, keeping in mind that Persians like to see a generous portion of rice for guests and might make much more.
Meanwhile, soak some saffron in a little boiling water, maybe 30ml. I've seen my mother-in-law use half a gram: saffron is cheaper there and they like its flavour strong, even adding it to tea... Soak as much as you can, because the aroma is important to the finished dish. The water should turn ruby red. You can store leftover saffron water in a jar in the fridge for a couple of days or use it in other dishes to go with the rice.
Boil lots of salted water, say 5qt for 2 cups soaked rice. Add the soaked rice and parboil until rice is partially cooked but still firm. Strain and set aside to drain.
To get the crust (tahdig):
Start with butter. Unless you are keeping kosher or have health concerns, there will be NO oil of any type in this rice. (Margarine is too vile to be mentioned in this context.)
All the Muslim women I saw making this rice in Iran used butter, and plenty of it - this is special occasion rice! They might use oil in everyday rice (katteh), but not making chelow for guests. For a Le Creuset type round dutch oven, start with 2-3 tablespoons on the bottom of the pot.
Now, you can have a rice crust, a potato crust, or a bread crust.
It's hard to pull off a plain rice crust without making it too brittle, but this is how I have seen it done: mix egg yolks or yogurt mixed with saffron water with enough rice to thinly cover the bottom of the pot. Or just mix rice with a lot more butter.
For a potato crust, thinly slice (quarter inch) 1-2 peeled potatoes. Arrange in slightly overlapping circles in the melted butter at the bottom of the pan. Don't make the potato slices too thin or they might burn before the rice is done steaming.
For a bread crust, take thin slices of crustless white bread and arrange the same way as for the potatoes.
Now mound the drained rice over the crust you've prepared. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to poke holes in the rice and slip a few pats of butter in.
Finally, drizzle some saffron water over the top of the rice.
Now, take a folded tea towel (paper towels will work in a pinch) and stretch taut over the rim of the pot, holding in place with the lid. The towel should trap the steam and keep it from condensing and running back into the pot.
Cook over very very low heat to steam the rice and brown the crust. After half an hour, you can crack the lid and start testing.
Serve by mounding the rice in a serving dish. Pry the crust up and break it into pieces. You can arrange these on the rice serving dish or use a separate dish. Sometimes the crust is served in a separate dish with some brothy stew over it (khoresht - like ghormeh sabzi or gheimeh), particularly if it is a very hard rice crust.
Please forgive inaccurate quantities and bad transliterations of Persian. Good luck making rice!
Source: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/296306#1631719
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Tip: If you live near an Iranian/Persian market, spend $30.00 on the rice cooker - they are NOT the same as your average rice cooker, I assume any middle eastern market would carry them. They don't come with instructions (I don't know why). If you get one, follow the rinse/soak steps, add about 1/4 cup of oil or butter to the bottom of the rice cooker. Add 2-3 cups of 'clean and salty' rice. Match water + 1/2 with the rice. So 2 cups of soaked rice would mean to use 2 1/2 cups of water. Don't cook longer than 30 minutes in a persian rice cooker or it makes the tahdig soggy. The timer is always off on those things.
My better half tells me the worse it looks the better it tastes. In the case of Gheimeh, I tend to agree. I can't stand the color.