This is almost like a biryani but with gentle Iranian spices and it makes a great centre piece. You can serve with yoghurt if you like and we missed a side of greens or salad.
Wine Suggestion: This suits a rich and broad white like Domaine Manciat-Poncet’s Pouilly-Vinzelles. With a lovely mix of stonefruit flavours and grapefruit this has a zip as well as the breadth that compliments the prawns as opposed to fighting or overwhelming them.
Spicy prawn rice – serves 6
- 500g basmati rice
- 6 fat cloves of garlic
- 7cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 heaped tsp ground fenugreek leaves
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
- 600g large peeled prawns
- 60g butter
Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add a big handful of crumbled sea salt. Boil the rice for 6-8 minutes or until the grains are bright white and slightly elongated. They should be just starting to soften.
Drain the rice and rinse under cold water for a couple of minutes, until cool.
Line the bottom of the rice pot with some nonstick baking paper and set aside.
Put a large frying pan over a medium heat. Drizzle in a generous amount of olive oil (or vegetable oil) and fry the garlic for 30 seconds, then add the grated ginger, ground ginger, cumin, fenugreek and chilli flakes, and stir. Add the prawns and cook for under a minute, or until just starting to turn pink, then remove the pan from the heat and season generously with salt and pepper.
Put the paper-lined pot back over the heat and pour in a generous drizzle of olive oil and the butter. Sprinkle in some sea salt, then scatter in enough rice to cover the base of the pan.
Layer the prawn mixture and rice into the pan, finishing with a thin layer of rice. Use the long handle of a wooden spoon to poke about 5 holes into the rice, right down to the base of the pan.
Wrap the lid of the pan in a tea towel, then cover the pan and cook over the lowest temperature for about 40 mintues.
Check the rice is cooked, then remove it from the pan. If you’re brave you can place a platter over the pan and flip the rice out onto it. Scrape out any crispy tahdig (the crispy rice on the base) from the bottom of the pan and serve on top of the rice.
(Original recipe from Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour, Mitchelle Beazley, 2014.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 