Persian Rice

(this recipe is straight from Cooking and Cooking website - but the picture's mine, plus I failed on the Tah deeg. Plus I put zereshk in mine here.) 

2 1/2 cups (about 450 g) uncooked basmati rice

vegetable oil

1/3 cup butter (more or less depends on your taste)

1/4 teaspoon ground saffron

thin bread, or sliced potato, or just omit and use the crunchy rice

salt

Dissolve ground saffron in 2 tablespoons of boiling water and set aside (click for How to Use Saffron).

Place the rice in a large bowl; pour lukewarm water, stir and pour off the water. Repeat four times until water runs clear. Then soak rice in salted (with 2 tablespoons salt) lukewarm water for at least one hour.

Drain the soaked rice and set aside.

Meanwhile, pour water in a large non-stick pot (until it is 3/4-full), add 1 tablespoon salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Add rice to the boiling water and cook uncovered until rice is a little tender (not quite tender) about 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Remove from the stove; drain the rice in a colander.

Pour 6 tablespoons oil in the non-stick pot. Place a layer of thin bread in pot; it should cover the bottom of the pot.

Pour rice into the pot, over the bread; try to make a nice mound in the middle. Using handle of a wooden spoon, make deep holes in rice.

Pour 2/3 cup water over the rice. Then drizzle with 7 tablespoons oil. Put the lid on and cook over medium heat until it begins to steam. Then wrap a kitchen towel around underside of the pot lid, making sure it is secured on top and away from heat. Reduce heat to low and cook for approximately 35-45 minutes.

When rice is ready, in a small bowl combine dissolved saffron with 4-5 tablespoons of cooked rice (using for garnish) and set aside.

Melt the butter and pour all over the rice. Remove pot from the heat. Wet a towel with cold water and place the pot on the wet towel for a few moments. Transfer the cooked rice to a serving dish and garnish with rice and saffron mixture. Your Persian rice is ready!

Finally, for Tah-deeg; carefully remove the crusty bottom with a spatula in one whole piece.

Serve immediately.

Ovened bean-veg with Nutty Rice and EggMato

You’ll need:

• Butternut squash, red onion, garlic, lima beans (broad beans), corn kernels, brown rice, random chopped nuts, an apple, 1 tomato and 1 egg person, possibly a bit of fetta and pesto.

For your ovened veg:

• Chunk up your butternut and red onion, oil up with some crushed garlic, make introductions with the oven until they soften to the idea of being comestibles. Meanwhile have your corn kernels and double-podded broad beans ready- and add them when the other veg are nearly done.

For your Nutty Rice:

• Cook your brown rice in plenty of salty water, drain if necessary, heat it up again with your random chopped nuts and a chopped apple. Season.

For your EggMato:

• Get a LARGE tomato per person, slice top off (reserve), hollow out, season, add a smidgeof feta and pesto if there’s room and the ingredients, break an egg into each tomato (whole), put the reserved top of the tomato back on and pop in the oven. It does take a surprisingly long time considering it’s only tomato and egg – I’d allow them 20-25 minutes of cooking time in the general scheme of things. If you don’t put the fetta in be sure to season well.

The whole lot makes a very interesting-textured ensemble, lots of stuff going on there. Good health points too, I’d imagine. Have fun!

Condiments to the Chef (a.k.a. Veg and Tofu Rice)

Well well, this was surprisingly OK actually - especially after being condimented and generally pepped and whaleboned to the hilt (hence the alternate name). It's a permanent problem when you've got very differing degrees of heat-tolerance among your clientele. We meant to serve it as rice/tofu with barbecued veg, but it was raining so we called that off and just fried the veg instead.

First:
Make a marinade of 2 tbs honey, a crushed garlic clove, (meant to be preserved lemon juice but I couldn't find preserved lemons so used lime juice instead, always nice), balsamic vinegar, bit of fresh chopped chili, possibly harissa (couldn't find any again) and marinade the tofu in it while you cook some rice and either grill or fry your chosen veg (think peppers, red onion, courgettes, that sort of stuff).

Then:
Combine. Serve.

We recommend serving with a selection of the following: crushed chilies from a jar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, lots of fresh ground pepper. I'm sure you could think of other things as well. Fact is it's pretty mild but a good base to pile zing on, and really you can't score many more points for healthiness than this one so go for it.