Today I’m sharing a recipe for a Persian dish that would be great for iftar and even Eid! It’s a crispy rice cake known as tahchin.
Tahchin is one of Iran’s most famous dishes. It consists of a baked saffron rice cake with a crispy outer layer known as tahdig. Tahdig literally means “bottom of the pot” and describes the crunchy crust at the bottom of cooked rice. This Persian dish has a delicious golden crisp outside and a soft aromatic inside. Not only is it tasty, but it’s also beautiful to look at and will be sure to impress your guests. Serve it alongside some chicken or grilled lamb kebabs!
Try it out and let me know how you get on!
- 2 cups Tilda Pure basmati rice
- ¼ cup salt
- ¾ cup barberries
- 1tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 level teaspoon crushed saffron
- ¾ cup plain whole milk yoghurt
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (and a little more to grease the baking dish)
- Handful crushed pistachios
- Fill a pan with water and place on high heat.
- Add ¼ cup salt and bring to a boil.
- Add rice and cook for 6-8mins. Once the rice has parboiled, remove from hob and drain.
- While the rice is cooling, add ¾ cup barberries to a pan with a small knob of butter. Allow the barberries to plump up slightly and cook on low-medium heat for about 5 minutes.
- In a separate bowl whisk together egg yolks, yoghurt and crushed saffron.
- Add the parboiled rice to the bowl and mix well so all the rice is covered in yoghurt mixture.
- Grease a baking dish and add half the amount of rice mixture.
- Sprinkle barberries on the top half of the rice (save some to decorate the top too).
- Add remaining half of rice and use and gently pat down the top layer evenly.
- Cover the dish with foil and place in oven for 50mins- 1hr.
- Remove from oven and flip dish over to remove rice cake on a plate.
- Sprinkle barberries and crushed pistachios on top of rice cake to decorate.
Anonymous says
Your recipe does not mention the temperature of the oven Pleas add what temperature we should set the oven to cook the rice It is important to know. Thanks