Tahdig

Cherry rice dish with tahdig.

Tahdig made of lavash

Tahdig (Persian: ته دیگ‎‎, tah "bottom" + dīg "pot") is a speciality of Iranian cuisine consisting of crisp rice taken from the bottom of the pot in which the rice (chelow) is cooked. It is traditionally served to guests at a meal. Ingredients commonly added to tahdig include yogurt and saffron, bread, potato and tomato. Variations of tahdig include placing thin vegetable slices at the bottom of the pot, so they crisp up instead of the rice. Common vegetables include potato, carrots, and lettuce. Iranians also apply this crisping method to spaghetti as well, providing a hardened base.

Iraqi hikakeh

Iraqi rice cooking is similar to the method used for Persian chelow, a multistep process intended to produce tender, fluffy grains of rice. A prominent aspect of Iraqi rice cooking is the hikakeh, a crisp bottom crust. It differs slightly from the Persian tahdig, which is a single thick piece; the hikakeh contains some loose rice as well. Before serving, the hikakeh is broken into pieces so that everyone is provided with some along with the fluffy rice.

See also

• Persian cuisine
• Mesopotamian cuisine
• Nurungji
• Guoba
• Cucayo