Persian Tachin
Serves 4
Adapted from Recipe Tin Eats
For Parboiled Rice:
12½ cups (3 liters) water
2 cups (360grams) basmati rice, uncooked
1 tablespoon salt
For Barberries:
2 tablespoons (25 grams) unsalted butter
½ cup (35 grams) dried barberries (dried cherries or raisins also work)
1 teaspoon sugar
For Rice Mixture:
½ teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 cup (250 grams) plain yogurt
½ cup (85 milliliters) ghee, or butter, melted
3 egg yolks
½ teaspoon salt
For Filling:
2 tablespoons (25 grams) unsalted butter
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound (450 grams) ground lamb or beef
1½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric
1½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
1 cup (250 grams) canned crushed tomatoes
½ cup (125 milliliters) water
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
For Yogurt Sauce:
1⅓ cup (375 grams) yogurt
1½ tablespoon lemon juice
1½ tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
For Parboiled Rice:
In a large pot, bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the salt and rice. Bring back up to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Over a strainer, drain the water and let the rice steam dry for an additional 10 minutes. Set aside.
For Fruit:
Heat a small pan over medium heat. As the pan heats up, add the butter and let it melt. Add the barberries and cook for about 1 minutes until they plump up, stirring regularly.
Add the sugar and continue stirring for another minute, until the sugar has dissolved.
Pour the barberries into a small bowl and set aside.
For Rice Mixture:
Preheat your oven to 390° F (200° C).
Lightly grease a 10 inch (24 centimeter) glass pie dish with butter or oil.
Gently ground the saffron into a powder (if you have a mortar and pestle, these are good tools to use). Add the boiling water, stir together, and let the mixture steep for 10 minutes.
In a large mixing bowl, add the yogurt, melted ghee, egg, and salt. Once the saffron has steeped, add this to the bowl and whisk everything together until smooth and creamy.
Add the parboiled rice and fold the yogurt mixture into the rice until the rice is completely covered.
For Filling:
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. As the pan heats up, add the butter and let it melt. Once melted, add the onions and garlic and sauté until the onions turn glassy, about 4-5 minutes.
Add the ground meat into the pan. Break it up with a spoon as you let the meat brown. Once there is only a little bit of pink in the meat left, pour in the salt, pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, and allspice and mix together until well blended.
Pour in the canned tomatoes and water and give everything a few good stirs. Let the mixture slowly simmer for 8 minutes. Pour in ¾ of the sugared-barberries and toasted pine nuts and mix everything together. Remove from heat.
For Yogurt Sauce:
*Make this sauce only once the tachin is baking in the next step
In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. Whip everything together until creamy and well blended. Taste and adjust seasoning to your preferences.
For Assembly:
Pour about a third of the rice mixture into the pie dish and smooth into a flat surface (don’t let it go up the sides of the dish). Going spoonful by spoonful, carefully add additional rice mixture up the sides of the dish. Use the back of the spoon to smooth out the sides.
Add the meat filling into the pie dish and pour the remaining rice mixture on top, smoothing out the surface so that none of the filling is showing through.
Bake 60 – 80 minutes until the crust is deep golden all over. Rest for 10 minutes.
You can either serve it right out of the pie dish, as shown in the pictures, or, as is traditionally served, flip the pie dish upside down on a serving plate. The bottom of the tachin will now be the top.
Sprinkle the remaining barberries over top and serve with the yogurt sauce.
Enjoy!