[Sca-cooks] Recipe help- OOP

[Phlip]

For T'day, Margali, Rob, and I are doing Middle Eastern (except for
Caitlin's ham), and one of the recipes is a saffron rice. I had, this
weekend, gotton a special delivery from Freya, of some saffron from Micaylah
(thank you, Micaylah ;-) and made the mistake of mentioning that I thought
I'd make some saffron rice. Since that was one of the recipes she was
wanting to do, she asked me to follow her recipe _exactly_ as a test run for
T'day, so I did.

I was not impressed. For one thing, if I'm going to do that much crapping
around with a dish, it's going to produce something more interesting than a
rice that I can make myself with half the steps.

Margali had said that she thought that this would make the standard,
seperate grain type of rice that Americans seem to prefer (I don't, I LIKE
sticky rice) with a crust.

My method (1 c rice, two c water, half a stick of butter, throw in a pan on
low heat until cooked, then let it cook a bit longer, so the rice in the
bottom fries a bit, making a crust) is lots easier, and I honestly didn't
see much difference, other than the rice following the ME recipe was even
more glutinous than usual, and by the time it was ready to eat, I was
thoroughly tired of rice- and I like rice well enough, that whewn Rob buys
it for me, he gets it in the 50 lb bags (I, primarily, do about one per
year).

However, in the interests of fairness, I'm going to post the recipe, and see
if those of you familiar with this kind of dog-n-pony show might tell me
what might be wrong, from Margali's expectations. The only difference I made
from the recipe was that we only have Jasmine rice- might that be a
difference that makes a difference?

>From "New Food of Life" by Najmieh Batmanglij- basicly, Iranian/Persian
cooking.

Saffron Steamed Plain Basmati Rice

3 c long grain basmati rice
8 c water
2 T salt
2 T plain yogurt
1 t ground saffron dissolved in 4 T hot water
3/4 c butter or olive oil or
      ghee (I made and used ghee)

1. Pick over rice.

2.Wash rice in lukewarm water 5 times.

3. Soak in 8 c water for 2-24 hours (I went 2 1/2, since I wanted dinner
tonight, not tomorrow.)

4. Bring to brisk boil for 6-10 minutes ( Was closer to 5 minutes, because
it was starting to stick). Drain and rince.

5. In a bowl, mix 2 spatulas of rice, 2 T yogurt, 1/2 c ghee and 1/2 c hot
water, and a few drops of saffron water.

6. Spread the yogurt-rice mixture over the bottom of the pot. This will help
to create a tender golden crust (tah dig) when rice is cooked.

7. Carefully heap the rice on the yogurt/rice at the bottom of the pan,
gradually shaping it into a pyramid. Poke a couple holes in (the pile) with
a wooden spoon.

8. Cover and cook rice 10-15 minutes over medium heat to form crust.

9. Dissolve the remaining ghee in 1 c hot water and pour over the rice
pyramid. Put a clean dish towel or a couple of paper towels over the pot and
cover firmly with lid to prevent steam from escaping. Cook 40-50 minutes
longer over low heat.

10. Remove the pot from the heat. Allow to cool on a damp surface for 5
minutes without uncovering- this helps to free the crust from the bottom of
the pot (Wanna bet?) Then put 2 T of rice in a dish, mix with remaining
saffron water, and set aside for garnish.

11. Gently taking one spatula full of rice at a time, place it on a serving
platter, without disturbing the crust (Trust me, nothing short of explosives
will disturb THAT crust). Mound the rice into a cone. Sprinkle the saffron
rice garnish over the top[.

12. Detach the layer of crust from the bottom using a spatula (A jackhammer
wouldn't loosen that!!!).

Any thoughts, folks? Not only did the rice wind up EXTREMELY glutinous, but
detaching the crust from the bottom of the pan was definitely more trouble
than it was worth.

In addition to wondering if the basmati rice would make a big difference,
I'm also wondering if the pot was right. Instructions said to use a
non-stick pot, and that's what I did. Maybe it wasn't heavy enough?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....