Persian cooking: recipes · Polo & dami: rice dishes
Shekar Polo شکر پلو
Sweet festive rice from Shiraz with sugar, saffron, almonds and pistachios, served with chicken.
Ingredients
- 1100 g basmati rice
- 415 g sugar
- 5½ tbsp saffron threads, ground and dissolved in 4 tbsp hot water
- 110 g flaked or slivered almonds
- 85 g pistachios, chopped
- 2¾ tsp ground cardamom
- 165 g butter
- 11 tbsp oil
- salt (to taste)
Method
- Boil the sugar with 100 ml water, saffron and cardamom into a syrup. Toast the almonds and pistachios briefly in butter.
- Wash the rice, soak in salted water for 1 hour, then parboil in plenty of boiling salted water for 6–8 minutes and drain.
- Put the rice in the oiled pot and drizzle the syrup over it.
- Cover the pot with a lid wrapped in a cloth and steam for 10 minutes over medium heat, then 45 minutes over low heat.
- Sprinkle with almonds and pistachios and serve with chicken.