It is the pride of Persian households, rich and poor, to provide rice that has crusted at the bottom and sides of the pot so that it can be inverted onto a plate like an upside-down cake. Pieces of this crisp crust are always offered to honored guests first. Making the crust is both easy and infuriatingly confounding at the same time.
I'll chalk one vote up for "easy." The trick with kateh is to get the rice to crust at the bottom of the pot without sticking to the bottom of the pot, and perhaps because my pot was absolutely brand-new, it worked exactly as the recipe said it would.
The rice crust tastes almost exactly like rice cakes. ^__^ It's a shame I haven't any honored guests around to share it with.
Also: have to note that Ms. Jaffrey's suggestion to cook rice in as little water as possible and allow it to puff up, primarily, in steam made this batch of rice just about the most delicious batch of rice ever. Will cook rice in this method henceforth.
I love kitchens!
2 comments:
I thought of you this evening because i had some of the best kateh ever. And our host's sweet mother had used grated bread and potatoes and turnips with the rice. Crunchy flavor!
I made kateh again last night... I keep promising myself I'll eat less rice, but it keeps not happening. :)
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