Persian food is the cuisine of Iran. Typical meals in an Iranian household include rice served with chicken, meat, or fish. Persian cuisine is known for its wide variety of rice dishes. Out of all the Persian rice recipes, this is my favorite rice. It's the only one I order when I go to a Persian restaurant. One of my favorite herbs is dill. The fact that this rice dish is filled with it makes this rice simply amazing. The dill brings a fantastic fresh flavor and fragrance to the plain old rice and the fava beans give it a smooth, buttery variation in the texture. It is great served with chicken or lamb.
Ingredients:
3 cups basmati rice
3 bunches fresh dill
2 bags frozen, double-peeled fava beans
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 stick butter, separated
1 head garlic
2 pita breads
Directions:
Put rice in a large bowl and fill with water to cover. Add 2 pinches salt.
Wash dill, cut all thick stems off. Chop the rest extremely fine.
Boil water in pot. Once boiled, drain rice and put in boiled water. Add a little salt. Parboil for 5 to 7 minutes.
Once half cooked, throw in fava beans and mix well. Drain rice in colander and wash with a little cold water.
Mix in finely chopped dill and cinnamon powder by hand to not break the pieces of rice. Make sure to mix it well so the dill is spread everywhere.
Add 3/4 stick butter in pot. Once butter is melted, twirl around to coat pot, add pita bread.
Add half of the rice mixture.
Add whole garlic head, peel and all in center of rice.
Add remaining rice mixture.
Level and make several holes in rice all the way down using the end of a wooden spoon. Add 1/4 cup of water.
Put on high heat, add 1/4 stick butter (cut into small pieces, spread out all over the top of the rice). Cover the lid with a kitchen towel and cover pot. (Make sure to tie towel at top so you don’t cause a fire.)
Cook over high heat for 5 minutes. Lower heat and cook for another 15 minutes.
Raise heat to high again and let crisp for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and flip onto a serving dish. Serve & enjoy!
If you make this recipe, be sure to snap a photo and hashtag it #EATDRINKPLAYLA. I'd love to see how yours turned out!