About the dish

Tachin, also spelled as tah chin, is an Iranian rice cake primarily consisting of rice, yogurt, saffron, and eggs.
Also known as tahcheen, this crispy baked Persian rice is often layered with meat, dried fruit, spices, and presented in a rectangular shape.

The key to this recipe is a yogurt-egg-oil-saffron mixture that is mixed with par boiled rice, then layered with barberries or even with chicken or mutton in a pie dish and baked until crispy on the outside.

My version of Tachin

You’ll often find recipes for Tachin –  cooked on the stove. But from experience, I can tell you definitively that oven is much easier and safer.On stove top, there’s a high risk of breakage when you flip the cake, you can’t see when the base is perfectly golden brown. So I like to make them in the oven in a glass baking dish.

I made this dish to little sweater, which can be served as light dessert or even as breakfast. As Berberris are not available here, I used cranberries to make my tachin, and it is just superb. The saffron and kewra flavoured cruncy rice with soft and fluffy inside, in addition to a layer of slight sweet and tangy cranberries are just out of the world.

Recipe

• Prepararion time: 15 min
• Cooking time: 1 hour
• Serves: 9 portions
• Course: side
• Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients

For making rice

• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2-3 litre of.water

For making saffron-yoghurt mixture

• 8-9 saffron threads
• 2 tablespoon of warm water
• 1/2 cup plain yoghurt
• 1/4th cup cooking oil(neutral flavour) like sunflower oil/corn oil
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon kewra water/rose water
• 1/4th teaspoon salt

For the cranberry fillings

• 1 cup dry cranberries
• 1/4th cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon kewra water/rose water
• 3-4 tablespoon of water
• 1 tablespoon of sliced pistachios

baking equipment

• (7×7) inch size square glass baking dish greased with little oil
• Aluminuum foil to cover the dish

Procedure

Wash and rinse basmati rice properly and then soak in water for atleast 1/2 an hour.

Bring water to the boil in a large pot. Discard water from the soaked rice and add in to the boiling water. Also add 1 teaspoon salt.Bring back up to the boil then cook for 5 minutes or until the rice is cooked 70%.

Drain and leave to steam dry for 5-10 minutes.

Cranberry fillings

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small pan over medium heat.

Add cranberries and cook for about 2-3 minutes with 2 tablespoons of water.

Add in 1/4th cup brown sugar and cool in slow heat until sugar dissolves completely.

Remove from heat and then stir through kewra water. You can use other flavourings like rose water. Even you can skip using flavour.

Saffron-yoghurt rice

Preheat oven to 180 C for 10 minutes.

Lightly grease a (7×7) inch glass dish with oil.

Soak saffron threads with 2 tablespoon of warm water and leave to seep for 10 minutes.

To a big mixing bowl, place 2 egg whites.

To that add in 1/4th cup of sunflower or corn oil, 1/2 cup of yoghurt, saffron water, kewra water and 1/4th teaspoon of salt.

Mix together well to a smooth mixture.

Add the cooked parboiled rice, stir well.

Pour half the rice in the baking dish, smooth surface. Top with 1/3 of the cranberries.

Cover with remaining rice, smooth the surface, sprinkle over another 1/3 of the cranberries.

Press down firmly with the back of.a spoon. Then cover with a foil.

Bake for about 60 minutes or until the crust is deep golden all over. I removed the foil after 45 minutes of baking so that top of the tachin also become golden brown.

Remove from oven. Set aside to cool down for 10 minutes.

Flip the tachin on a serving dish. It will come out easily as we greased the dish before baking.

Top with remaining cranberries and some sliced.piatachios. Then serve warm or at room temperature.

A light dessert with a thin cruncy crust with fluffy and flavourful rice and cranberries at the centre.