Albaloo Polo – Persian Saffron and Sour Cherry Rice
Albaloo Polo is a fragrant Persian saffron rice dish, topped with gently caramelised sour cherries and golden brown meatballs. You can even add more colour and texture to the Albaloo Polo with slivered pistachios and almonds.
You can easily make this beautiful rice dish vegetarian by not adding any meatballs. It is more than delicious enough on its own and can also be served as a side dish to chicken! Although, I would consider the chicken to be the side and this gorgeous jewelled rice the main dish.
Fresh sour cherries are difficult to get your hands on here in the UK. The reason may be, that they have a very short growing season or simply because they have fallen out of fashion in this part of the world. Thankfully they are available frozen in Middle Eastern or Turkish shops, as well as some other supermarkets. One type of sour cherry is the Morello cherry, which can be found frozen or conserved in many UK supermarkets.
Using frozen sour cherries is absolutely fine and won’t take away from the amazing flavour of this popular Persian dish!
When it comes to layering the rice, I explain two different options in this recipe. The first one is easier and gives you more control over how the end result looks. The second version is the traditional method.
Cook the most popular Persian dishes at home with the help of my e-book.
Time
Prep: 30min
Cook: 1h
Total: 1h 30min
Ingredients (serving 4)
400g / 14oz sour cherries (frozen or fresh)
400g / 2 cups basmati rice
300g / 1 1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp rosewater (optional)
1 tbsp slivered pistachios (optional)
1 tbsp slivered almonds (optional)
1/4 tsp saffron
2 tbsp salt
2 ice cubes
For the meatballs
250g / 8.8oz ground beef or lamb
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp mild paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
Method of preparing Albaloo Polo
Deseed the sour cherries
First, deseed the sour cherries. If they are frozen, let them defrost first. I find it easiest to use clean tweezers.
Set the sour cherries aside for later.
Bloom the saffron
If you have saffron threads, grind them using a pestle and mortar. This allows more of the fragrance and colour of the saffron to be absorbed by the melting ice cubes. Transfer the ice cubes to a glass and sprinkle the ground saffron over it. Set the glass aside in a warm place until later.
If you plan on adding slivered pistachios and almonds, you can transfer them to another glass and add the rosewater to it. Let them soak in it until it’s time to garnish.
Marinate the meat
Transfer the ground lamb or beef to a bowl, add the sesame seeds, paprika, onion powder, turmeric, garlic powder, black pepper and 1/4 tsp of salt.
Knead all the ingredients until they are well combined and the spices are evenly distributed throughout the ground meat.
Cover the bowl with a plate and put it in the fridge while you prepare the cherries and rice so that the meat can firm a little before shaping the meatballs.
Caramelise the sour cherries
Place a small pot over medium heat. Transfer the cherries to it, followed by the sugar. Let them simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Stir them gently, once in a while. The sour cherries should hold their shape as much as possible. Take out the cherries and set them aside. Let the juice simmer for 10 more minutes. Take it off the heat and set it aside until later.
Parboil the rice
Wash the rice by moving it around in a bowl of water, draining it, adding fresh water, and repeating this process 4 to 5 times until the water runs almost clear.
Bring an almost full pot of water to a boil. Add 2 tbsp of salt and allow it to dissolve.
Once the water is boiling, add the rice to it and briefly stir to make sure it does not stick together.
After 3 to 10 minutes fish out a rice corn and either bite or cut through it with a fingernail. The rice corn should only be half cooked, which is accomplished when the outer layer of the rice corn is soft and looks translucent and the centre is still firm and appears opaque white. How long this takes depends on which rice brand you are using. I’m using Tilda Pure Basmati and it takes 4 to 5 minutes to parboil. If you’re unsure, you can remove and check one rice corn as explained above every minute, starting at 3 minutes. If the rice turns out nice and fluffy, take note of the parboiling time of this particular brand, so you’ll know next time.
Drain the rice in a colander and rinse it with cool water. This interrupts the cooking process and washes off any excess salt.
Version 1 - Steam the rice ( this is the easier way)
Place a non-stick pot over medium heat. Cover the bottom with 4 tbsp vegetable oil. You can combine some of the parboiled rice with a few tsp of saffron water and add it to the pot first for a nicer-looking tahdig. Then add the remaining parboiled rice.
Poke a few holes halfway through the rice, using the handle of a wooden spoon. This helps the rice steam evenly.
Once you see steam rising from the pot or you can hear the sizzling sound, cover the lid with a clean kitchen towel, close it firmly and reduce the temperature to low. Let the rice steam for 50 to 55 min over low heat.
Version 2 - Layer and steam the rice
Add 4 tbsp of vegetable oil to a non-stick pot (that has a lid) over medium heat.
Now add a layer of the parboiled rice to the pot. By layer I mean, that the bottom of the pot is well covered by the rice. Then add a layer of sour cherries, followed by 1 or 2 tbsp of the cherry syrup, as pictured below. Continue adding alternating layers of rice, sour cherries, and cherry syrup until all the rice is used up. Keep some sour cherries and a bit of syrup as a garnish for later.
Poke a few holes halfway through the rice with the back of a wooden spoon. Line the lid with a clean kitchen towel. Put the lid on, reduce the temperature to low and let the rice steam for 50 min. Don’t remove the lid during this time. The holes in the rice allow more moisture to escape from the centre of the rice. The kitchen towel then absorbs this moisture, so it doesn’t drop back into the rice. This makes for perfect fluffy rice!
Shape the meatballs
Remove the ground meat from the fridge and thinly oil a plate with some vegetable oil. This will prevent the meatballs from sticking to it, so you can let them slide into the pan.
Take a small amount of ground meat and shape a small ball by rolling it with both palms facing each other. The size I recommend going for is slightly larger than the sour cherries. The reason I make them so small is, that I like them to be bite-sized, so that you can have rice, as well as a sour cherry, as well as a meatball on each spoon, without having to divide larger meatballs. Also, the small meatballs look better in this dish than the chunky ones.
Transfer about 5 tbsp vegetable oil to a frying pan and put it over medium to high heat. If your frying pan is too small to fit all the meatballs and allow them to come in contact with the hot oil, divide them into two batches and use half the vegetable oil for each batch.
Once the oil is hot, add the meatballs to the pan and spread them out evenly. Since they are so small, you don’t need to turn them individually. Gently shake the pan or give them a quick stir every minute or so, until they are golden brown all around. The whole process of searing them only takes about 5 minutes. Because of their small size, they may become tough and chewy, if you leave them longer. Take them off the heat and transfer them to a bowl or plate.
Serve your Albaloo Polo following version 1 of steaming the rice
Once the rice is ready, flip the pot carefully using a plate which is larger than the pot. You can remove the Tahdig and serve it separately.
Combine about one-quarter of the rice with the now-melted saffron ice cubes until it is evenly yellow.
Combine about one-quarter of it with sour cherry syrup to lightly coat the rice and make it look pink ( the syrup might be too much, so only add as much as needed).
On your serving plate add some of the syrup and spread it out all over the plate. Add the remaining white rice followed by the syrup rice mixture, saffron rice, sour cherries, and meatballs if you made any.
Remove the slivered almonds and pistachios from the rosewater. Sprinkle them on top of the rice. Don’t add the rosewater itself. You can reuse it in baking, desserts or lemonade. I even added some tiny edible cornflower petals to the rice, but that’s optional.
Serve your Albaloo Polo following version 2 of steaming and layering the rice
Once the rice is steamed, combine about one-quarter of it with the now-melted saffron ice cubes until it is evenly yellow. Now comes the fun part - arranging the Albaloo Polo on a serving plate.
Layer the white (or by now light pink) sour cherry rice with about half of the meatballs on your serving plate until the white rice is used up. Arrange the yellow rice on top, layering it with half of the remaining meatballs. Arrange the rest of the meatballs and the sour cherries and syrup on top of the rice. Remove the slivered almonds and pistachios from the rosewater. Sprinkle them on top of the rice. Don’t add the rosewater itself. You can reuse it for baking, desserts or lemonade. I even added some tiny edible cornflower petals to the rice, but that’s optional.
I’d love to see your Albaloo Polo! Feel free to tag me with @igotitfrommymaman on Facebook or Insta so I can take a look and give you a thumbs up!
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