Hmm, I don’t like making rice and I’m certainly not as vested in it as some (aka F). Perhaps I should try this:
From Making Meals in a Rice Cooker
Shabnam Rezaei, an editor and producer, who grew up in Tehran in
the 1970s and now lives in New York and Vancouver, said that a fundamental
expectation for women in Iran is the ability to make tender, fluffy rice. “There
are all kinds of jokes in Farsi about how women must keep their eyes on the rice
pot or they will not find a husband,” she said. Making Persian rice correctly
requires the cook to rinse and soak the grains, parboil them, dump them out, oil
the pot, put the rice back and steam it, covered with a towel, until tender and
surrounded by a golden crust on the bottom and sides called the tahdig.
It is perhaps not surprising that rice cookers, with a built-in tahdig function,
have become standard in Iran. In a culture where rice is so important, such a
staple, she said, the rice cooker can bring a kind of liberation for women.
Pete Ware 