Polo Zaferooni - Persian Saffron Rice
Polo Zaferooni is the basis of Persian Cuisine. Most of the Persian stews and kabab dishes are served with Persian Saffron Rice. It’s like the foundation of a house. Making aromatic, fluffy rice is the first thing you want to pay attention to when starting your Persian culinary journey. Since it is served with almost every dish you’ll have plenty of opportunity to master it.
You can download this recipe as a printable PDF for a small fee here.
Cook the most popular Persian dishes at home with the help of my e-book.
Time
Cooking time: 55 min
Ingredients (Serving 4):
400g/2 cups basmati rice
Freshly boiled water
4 tbsp vegetable oil (if you want to make Tahdig)
1/4 tsp ground saffron
2 ice cubes to bloom the saffron
2 tbsp salt
Bloom the saffron
Transfer the ice cubes to a glass. Bloom the ground saffron by sprinkling it over the ice cubes. Set it aside in a warm place to melt into saffron water. (For a better result you can do this one hour in advance.)
Method
Bring a large enough pot of water to boil and dissolve 2 tbsp salt in it. Don’t worry, you will rinse most of the salt off later.
Wash the rice in a bowl by adding cool water to it, moving it around with your hand, draining the water, and repeating this process 3 to 4 times to remove the rice starch as much as possible. This results in fluffier, less sticky rice.
Add the rice to the pot and keep the water boiling. Let the rice parboil until the rice corns are soft on the outside but still have a bite in the centre.
How long this process takes depends on your rice. I’m using Tilda Pure Basmati Rice and it takes 4 minutes for the rice to cook to this stage. It might take anything from 3 to 7 minutes.
Once your rice is parboiled, drain it in a strainer and immediately rinse it with cold water to interrupt the cooking process and wash off any excess salt.
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 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 about 50 to 55 min over low heat.
Serve your Saffron Rice
Once the rice is ready, flip the pot carefully using a plate which is larger than the pot. You can serve the rice as it is or remove the Tahdig and serve it separately.
Transfer a small part of the rice to a bowl and combine it with a few tsp of saffron water until it is evenly distributed and the rice has a bright yellow colour.
Arrange the rice on a serving platter with the saffron rice on top. Enjoy!
I’d love to see your Saffron Rice! Feel free to tag me with @igotitfrommymaman on Facebook or Insta so I can take a look and give you a thumbs up!
Looking for more Persian recipes? Here are my more of my free written recipes!
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