This week in my kitchen 14 :: Persian tomato rice : Polow ghermez (red rice)

Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

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• Persian tomato rice  with torshi (Persian pickle) mast-o-musir (yoghurt with shallots) made with dried shallots, reconstituted and then left in yoghurt to absorb the tangy flavour.
• Tea anniversary gift from my lovley sister P. Too nice to open yet...we might keep it for a little bit longer. 
• Making mast-o-masir. You can buy the dried shallots from here.
•  Porridge cooked with vine fruits and maple syrup
• No baking this week, just lots of fresh fruit
• this carrot and chickpea salad with apricots and ginger. I used the carrot tops with mint from the garden and added spring onions 
• boxes lots of boxes...

Polow Ghermez

Every so often 'A' would mention Persian tomato rice saying that one day he'd make some for me to try.  I'd never heard of it before, never seen it, or tried it so presumed that it can't be that good or everybody else would be serving it up too... But we had lots of ripe tomatoes this week and I asked him to teach me how to prepare it. 

So he measured the rice into a saucepan and washed it, and I poured boiling water over tomatoes to release the skins and then peeled them. We pulped the juicy tomatoes and then added them to the drained rice plus a little turmeric and sea salt and a good trickle of olive oil. The tomato juice should cover the rice when all mixed together by about an inch if not enough you can add a little water and tomato puree. We covered the saucepan with a lid and placed it on the hob and allowed it to cook on a low heat for about an hour until the rice is cooked to a delicious soft pinky pollo with crunchy tadik at the bottom of the pan. 

It's very more-ish and so easy to make that I wish I'd asked sooner. This will definitely be a new staple.

• about nine tomatoes juiced
• three and a half cups of basmati rice 
• tomato puree
• sea salt
• turmeric
• olive oil about two tbsp

wash the rice, put in saucepan, add salt and juice mix. should be about an inch above cover leave on low heat for about an hour. 

joining with heather for her weekly blog hop

...coming?
debx