A few weeks ago on a Saturday I thought I was throwing together a straightforward shrimp and rice dish from a beautiful new cookbook I’d purchased – what I actually was doing was creating a veritable masterpiece. It was my first foray into Persian cooking, and, true to form, I had skipped all of the boring pages on the region’s unique rice cooking technique and set my sights on making a meal without thoroughly reading the recipe, besides the ingredient list. I invited a friend over for a “quick dinner” before going out, but a brief review of my text messages from that evening documents a spiral into fear and anxiety surrounding the “scary” recipe, the “many steps” of which I was “carefully reading out loud to myself.”
I may have let the recipe intimidate me, but see if the instructions don’t scare the pants off of you as well. Cooking rice in a pot is my Achilles’ heel – I chalk it up to sheer magic every time it comes out the way it should – and here was a full page of text instructing me to make a “rice pyramid” in a mixture of oil and water, poke holes into the structure with the handle of a wooden spoon, and leave the next 40 minutes to fate in a covered pot.
I’m going to chalk this one up to the food gods, because despite being a really mediocre rice cooker AND committing the cardinal sin of not reading a recipe through to the end before diving in headfirst, what I had on my hands (and in my mouth) after about an hour was one of the best things I have ever eaten. You heard me, friends – not even the best I have ever made, but the best I have ever tasted.
If that italicized proclamation doesn’t inspire you to get thee to a grocery store like, yesterday, you may be a lost cause. Despite being a “foreign” dish, the combination of herbs and spices is both bright and subtle, with a flavor I think would appeal to many. And the rice – the RICE – is so perfectly cooked, each grain articulated but slightly fluffy. I’m ready to call myself a convert to the rice pyramid and never look back.
Ingredients
- Water
- 300g basmati rice
- 2 tablespoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeks
- 80ml vegetable oil
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 large tomato, seeded and diced
- 200g peeled shrimp (tails intact)
- 1/3 cup finely snipped chives
- 1/3 cup finely shredded flat-leaf parsley
- 1/3 cup finely shredded cilantro
- 40g unsalted butter, melted
- 20 saffron threads
Instructions
- First, make the saffron liquid. Lightly toast the saffron threads in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for about 30 seconds. While the threads must be totally dry, be very careful not to bury then. Tip the saffron into a mortar and leave for a moment or two before grinding to a powder. Mix the ground saffron with 2 tablespoons of boiling water and set aside to infuse for at least 1 hour before using.
- Next, par-boil the rice. Wash the rice thoroughly, then leave it to soak in a generous amount of lukewarm water for 30 minutes. Swish it around with your fingers every now and then to loosen the starch. Strain the rice, rinsing it again with warm water.
- Bring 2 liters of water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the salt and stir in the strained rice. Return the water to a rolling boil and cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Test the rice by pinching a grain between your fingers or by biting it. It should be soft on the outside, but still hard in the center. Strain the rice again with warm water. Toss it several times to drain away as much of the water as you can.
- Soak the fenugreek for 10 minutes, then strain. Heat 1 tablespoon of teh oil in a frying pan over a low heat. Add the onion and spices and fry gently for 5 minutes or until the onion has softened. Add the tomato and cook for 1 minute. Add the shrimp and stir them briefly in the spice mixture until they start to change color. Remove the pan form the heat and stir in the herbs.
- Return the rice saucepan to a medium heat and add the remaining oil and 2 tablespoons water. As soon as the oil begins to sizzle, spoon in enough rice to cover the base of the pan in a thin layer. Scatter a layer of the shrimp mixture over the rice. Continue to layer the rice and the shrimp mixture, building them up into a pyramid. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to poke 5 or 6 holes down through the rice to the base of the pan to help it steam. Mix 2 tablespoons warm water with the melted butter and saffron liquid and drizzle this over the rice. Wrap the saucepan lid in a clean tea towel and cover the pan as tightly as you can.
- Leave the pan on a medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes until the rice is visibly steaming- you will see puffs of steam escaping from the edges of the pan. Turn the heat down to low and leave the pan alone for 40 minutes. Resist the temptation to peek, as this releases the steam and affects the cooking time. The rice can actually sit quite happily over the lowest possible heat for another 20 minutes or so.
- When ready to serve, sit the saucepan in a little cold water in the sink, the sudden change in temperature creates a surge of steam that "shocks" the rice and makes it shrimp from the sides, which loosens the crusty bottom.
- To serve, invert the pan onto a warm serving platter so that the rice plops out as one golden-capped mound. (Mine plopped into no such thing). Otherwise, spoon the rice into a warm serving dish and when you reach the crispy base, lift it out and drape it over the rice.
Notes
From Saraban
