Rhonda's Iranian Rice

Submitted by Dienia B.

"When I was young, I had a friend married to an Iranian fellow. She made this and it was great. She used the big can of tomato paste not the little can and it was pretty tomato-y. Make sure it's well greased, cause the rice can stick. Cook on low."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 5

ingredients

• 1 lb hamburger
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons turmeric
• 1 dash red pepper
• salt
• 2 cups rice, washed and drained
• oil
• Pam cooking spray
• 1 (17 ounce) can green beans
• 1 onion

directions

1. Brown onions and green beans in skillet. Brown hamburger and drain.
2. Boil 3-quart pan of water for rice; add rice and cook 10 minutes. Drain rice and rinse with lukewarm water.
3. Meanwhile, add meat to vegetables with tomato paste and spices. Simmer till thick.
4. In tall pan, pour oil in bottom of pan. Spray sides heavily with Pam. Start layering with rice on bottom, then hamburger mixture; repeat.
5. Put wet dish rag around rim and put lid on tight. Cook on low heat for 25 minutes. Place in cold water to unmold on plate.

Reviews

[tankgrrl13]

This was REALLY good! My kids were impressed with the presentation of it and both of them at this right up.

 

[Lori Mama]

Very nice. I followed the instructions as described. Unfortunatly when I went to take a picture of the layers after unmolding (which I had no problem with)the rice kept falling all over the place, so they are unfortunatly not visable. ;)

 

[UmmBinat]

Simple and yummy. I found our tomato sauce a bit too sweet because I did not have enough tomato paste on hand I used a little less than half the amount, corn free ketchup. Next time I would use only tomato paste. I didn't really get the simmering part since it was already pretty thick but I cooked it somewhat as I know that improves the taste of canned tomato paste. Instead of the dash red pepper I used a dash cayenne pepper powder, sea salt to taste in both meat & vegetables and when cooking the Persian rice which I soaked for some time after rinsing. I used a bit of canola oil to brown the onions and canned green beans (yes I used canned!) and added the hamburger (I used extra lean ground beef, adding additional canola oil) to brown in the mixture after the onions and green beans where just about done. Plus I used the rest of the ingredients. Rather than put a wet dish rag around the rim, I added a sprinkling of water on top of the rice before steaming. I did have trouble to unmold it though as the bottom layer of rice stuck to the pot even though I oiled it pretty well. This dish did not get the tadig (crispy rice on the bottom) I hoped it would but I am not sure it is meant to. I think another time I would first steam the rice at a higher temperature to start the crisping process for tadig, then lower the temperature. I will make this again probably using canned green beans again too but maybe fresh that I preboil. For some reason I don't like the idea of using frozen green beans in this rice, I think the texture wouldn't come out right. Made for SEPTEMBER NA/ME TAG!