Persian Tahchin with braised beef and wild mushroom

This is the third post of my Tahchin trilogy series (See 1^st here and 2^nd one here).  The meat in this Tahchin is braised in between the rice layers and by means of the generated steam. Traditionally, meat Tahchin dishes are not cooked this way; generally, fully cooked pieces of meat are layered in between parboiled rice. Furthermore, I present a new recipe for the custard which consists of egg yolks and cream. I also mix the meat with a rich Umami mushroom pomegranate sauce. The resulting meat is absolutely tender and rich in mushroom flavor. The rice crust is brittle, the inner rice soft and moist. 

Ingredients:

For Rice and custard:

2 cups of Jasmine rice

3 cup of water

1 TSP salt

½ cup low-fat yogurt

½ cup single cream

3 egg yolks

1 TBSP sugar

Pinch of saffron

For Beef:

1 Pound (~450 gr) boneless stewing beef, cut into medium pieces

1 medium white onion, finely chopped

2 bay leaves

½ TSP dark chili powder

½ TSP Allspice

1 Oz (~28 gr) dried wild mushroom, soaked in ½ cup water and reconstituted

½ cup black barberries (or regular if you can't find them black)

2 TBSP pomegranate molasses

Soak mushrooms overnight. Make custard by combing, yogurt, yolks  and cream. Season with pepper and then add the sugar and saffron. No salt is needed as rice will have plenty.

Parboil the rice with water and salt in similar fashion of the previous posts(1 , 2). Add the custard and fold in; set aside. 

Season the meat pieces, preheat the pan and brown them all sides.

Add the onion pieces, bay leaves and all the spices and cook till onion is translucent. Add the mushrooms and the soaking liquid, barberries and molasses. Heat till all the liquid is evaporated and the sauce is thick, the meat par-cooked.

Time to assemble some Tahchin! 

Spread half of the rice mixture on the bottom a 2-3 Q.t. pot. Lay all the meat mixture on the rice and finish with the rest of the rice mixture. Make sure the meat layer is completely trapped. Otherwise, the exposed meat pieces won't cook, the braise will fail.

The cooking procedure is similar to previous posts and with employing Dum cooking technique (1 , 2). Cook on high heat for 5 minutes or till the moment that you start seeing steam flowing out. Then reduce the heat to low and let cook for 90 minutes. The steam will braise the meat to perfection! 

Invert onto a plate.

The meat was melt-in-your-mouth-tender!