485453 Fri Feb 01 13:16:08 -0800 2008 7 31 Home Cooking 0 3356625 I am making a Persian pilou using a take on a Claudia Roden recipe (jeweled rice), but I only have brown rice. Anyone have luck making persian rice with a crusty bottom using brown rice? If so - how do you adapt the recipe - boil longer, steam longer??? Fri Feb 01 13:16:08 -0800 2008 15001 jsaimd 1 3356650 I've not tried this, but I cook brown basmati rice the same way I do regular basmati, and it turns out nicely - separate grains, etc., and takes only a couple of minutes longer. If you give this a try, I'd be curious about your results. Fri Feb 01 13:23:05 -0800 2008 3356625 10985 MMRuth 1 3357735 I have had very bad luck with brown basmati. Somehow it stays very hard. I don't have access to the instant kind, just the regular one. I have tried it the same way I use white basmati, and also tried soaking it for longer. But still hard. So I just stopped using it. Fri Feb 01 20:46:45 -0800 2008 3356625 118120 luckyfatima 1 3357948 Like MMRuth says, cooking it isn't all too different so I'm sure you can get a crusty bottom but brown rice, at least for me, always takes a little more water and a little more time than traditional. I actually really dislike brown basmati as it doesn't have that nice perfumeyness that white basmati has; any other brown rice I love but brown basmati just doesn't compare. Sat Feb 02 01:11:36 -0800 2008 3356625 58855 digkv 1 3358095 this is an interesting article (book excerpt) on persian rice varieties, dishes, and cooking/prep tips: http://www.asiafood.org/persiancooking/rice.cfm Sat Feb 02 06:03:21 -0800 2008 3356625 105717 alkapal 1 3358318 If it is short or medium grain brown rice, don't use it! Persian rice dishes like chelow and polow need long grain rice. Although I have seen Afghans use brown basmati rice for their version of polow, I've never seen my husband's Iranian family do it. I use brown basmati to make adas polow, rice with lentils, and although it isn't as fluffy as white rice, it is very satisfying with the lentils. Brown basmati rice will work as long as you soak it long enough (suggest at least an hour, rinsing until the water runs clear afterward) and parboil it to the same point of done-ness as you would with white basmati rice. The test I use is that the very center of the grain is still quite crunchy but no longer hard. The parboiling is difficult to judge even for experienced chelow and polow makers, so don't feel bad if it takes you a while to get it right. (I put on about thirty pounds getting it entirely right, which I then managed to take off by not eating chelow for a long long time...) Not every batch is perfect, but it always turns out pretty good in the end. If, after parboiling the rice, it isn't salty enough, I secretly sprinkle in some salt as I am layering the rice into the pan for the final steaming. The rice is supposed to be salted from the parboiling, but I don't always judge how much salt to put in the water correctly. Don't worry too much about that for jeweled rice as it isn't supposed to be salty, but more savory polows can be helped along this way. Since the brown basmati rice may take a little longer to steam to done-ness, be careful to use a heavy pot over low heat. The key is to use plenty of butter, or failing that, a very heavy nonstick pan and nearly plenty of butter. Good luck with your javaher polow - it's always served at weddings, so I hope it brings you a festive occasion too. Sat Feb 02 08:27:02 -0800 2008 3356625 10402 plum 2 3360333 I also do post parboil salting if I didn't get it right in the first place. It makes no difference in the end. these are all great tips! thanks so much! i'll soak the brown basmati for an hour next time. Sat Feb 02 22:55:46 -0800 2008 3358318 118120 luckyfatima 2 3360363 I ended up doing it with white rice because I was doing it for a party and it wasn't the right time to experiment, but it dawned on me that the methods is similar to the CI method of cooking brown rice, so I think I will try it again with brown rice sometime. I will boil the rice for 30 minutes, then steam until done. Worth trying once we get rid of all these leftovers. The white rice version turned out very nice and people seemed to really enjoy it. Didn't get much of a crust, but I rushed it at the end to get the party going... Sat Feb 02 23:25:40 -0800 2008 3358318 15001 jsaimd