Steam Rice | Persian Kateh

Persians have lots of different side dishes and side dish needed to be served with something else. Persian cuisine has numerous stews and the stews needed to be served with rice or bread. White rice can be steamed or strained. Here we are going to introduce you a recipe for Persian white rice being steam.

Persian kateh is a kind of rice that its nutrients are kept healthily. Kateh is very easy to prepare and is usually served with different Persian stews like Fesenjoon, Khoresh Aloo, Aloo Esfenaj and lots of other different dishes.

Stream Rice | Persian Kateh

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Kateh is a very simple healthy meal, which is also a nice choice for vegetarians. Rice is not strained when cooking kateh, therefore, vitamin B which is absorbed by the rice water is kept and cooked in it and makes a very nutritious dish. Let’s take a look at how kateh is made:

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Main Course

Cuisine persian

Servings 3 people

Ingredients

  

• 4 cups water
• 3 cups rice
• 1 soupspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or oil

Instructions

 

• First, in a suitable pot, wash the rice. The Rice needs to be washed with water. The first time, the water will become dark in color. Remove that water and re wash the rice with some fresh water. This needs to be reaped enough times for the water not to change its color. . Each time, rub rice grains between your fingers to remove any floury substance from it and then discard water. The last time, pour water in the pot and add some salt, then leave the rice to soak in water for almost 2 hours. You need to be careful about the salt amount you add, because this type of rice is not going to be drained after boiling, so the extra salt can’t be discarded.
• After 2 hours, put the pot on a high flame until it boils. Then add some oil and stir. let it boil for almost 4 to 6 minutes (depending on the rice type), then lower the flame and let it cook slowly over a low flame.
• Before rice water is completely evaporated, test the hardness of rice grains. If they are too hard and the pot is running out of water, add some more boiling water to the pot. Be careful about the water amount, because if it’s too much, rice will be overcooked. You need some experience to recognize the exact amount of water needed in this stage. Until then, add boiling water little by little, let it boil and test again.
• when water is completely evaporated and rice grains are soft on the outside and rather hard in the core, it’s time to brew rice. For brewing you need to cover the pot lid with a towel and then put the lid on the towel. You can add some more oil to the rice before brewing, but if the pot is non-stick, it really doesn’t take that much oil to cook rice.
• when cooking rice, different kinds of rice require different times to get ready. But it normally takes up to 30 to 40 minutes for kateh (steam rice) to cook.

Notes

Rice is the basic element of Persian cooking.

Rice and different Persian stews, are usually a non-separable parts of Iranian table. Other kinds of Persian foods like kebab are also served with kateh and are all very popular. Rice is cooked in three different ways in Iran: Polo, Chelo and kateh.

How to Top and and Serve Steam Rice or Persian Kateh

• Rice is usually served in trays.
• To make the steam rice or Kateh more colorful, In a separate dish, you can add some brewed saffron to 4-5 tablespoons of Kateh and mix them gently until the rice gets white. This is called saffroned-rice. Top the whole tray with it. Enjoy its amazing taste.
• Some hot liquid oil can also be added on the rice when it’s being served in the tray. In Iran, the oil from Kermanshah, or Kermanshahi oil, which is famous for its amazing smell, is usually added to rice at the time of serving.
• Some Iranian serve this dish with fried eggs.
• Kateh is a main course served mostly with different stews, such as Khoresh Bamieh, Ghormeh sabzi and so on.
• Kateh, and rice in general, is topped with different things, depending on the kind of food or stew being served with it. These toppings can be: barberry, pistachio slices, orange skin slices and etc.
• Barberries are very common topping for Persian food, but first you need to fry them with some butter or oil, saffron and rose water. Barberries are typically served with the rice in special foods like Zereshk Polo Ba Morgh, which is chicken and rice.

Some Tips About Preparing Steam Rice

• After brewing, If you think that the rice is not cooked well, you can add some boiling water to the pot and wait for some more minutes. (more tips about adding water is explained in the instructions.)
• If you like the taste of smoky rice, you can stir-fry the dry rice and then cook it with the same recipe. You can also buy smoky rice from grocery stores.
• The size of the pot is very important in rice cooking. The Pot needs to be bigger than the amount of rice you are cooking, so that rice grains have enough space to grow in length and cook.
• Do not stir Kateh too much. This can cause rice grains to break, which ruins your rice appearance when being served.