Cuisine of Iran: Encyclopedia II - Cuisine of Iran - Varieties of rice

Cuisine of Iran - Varieties of rice

It is believed that rice (berenj in Persian) was brought to Iran from southeast Asia or the Indian subcontinent in ancient times. Varieties of rice in Iran include champa, rasmi, anbarbu, mowlai, sadri, khanjari, shekari, doodi, and others. Basmati rice from India is very similar to these Persian varieties and is also readily available in Iran. Traditionally, rice was most prevalent as a major staple item in northern Iran, while in the rest of the country bread was the dominant staple.

Cuisine of Iran - Methods of cooking rice

There are four primary methods of cooking rice in Iran:

• Chelow: rice that is carefully prepared through soaking and parboiling, at which point the water is drained and the rice is steamed. This method results in an exceptionally fluffy rice with the grains separated, and not sticky, and also results in a golden rice crust at the bottom of the pot called tah-dig (literally "bottom of the pot").
• Polow: rice that is cooked exactly the same as chelow, with the exception that after draining the rice, other ingredients are added in layers or sections of the rice, and then steamed together.
• Kateh: rice that is cooked until the water is absorbed. This is also the traditional dish of Gilan (described in detail below).
• Damy: cooked almost the same as kateh, except that the heat is reduced just before boiling and a towel is placed between the lid and the pot to prevent steam from escaping. Damy literally means "simmered."
• saffron polow with zereshk is the most popular iranian rice cooking .

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Varieties of rice", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki