Persian Cuisine
Shirin-Polow
Ingredients: (4 servings)
- basmati or long-grain rice, 500 grams
- chicken, 800 grams
- cooking oil
- butter, 2 spoons
- almonds, 50 grams
- pistachios, 50 grams
- orange peel, 100 grams
- large onions, two
- sugar, 500 grams
- saffron, 1/2 teaspoon
- salt
- black pepper
Directions:
Soak rice in warm water for 2 hours. Wash chicken. Peel and thinly slice onions. Fry in oil until slightly golden. Add chicken pieces and fry until color changes. Add a glass of hot water, salt and pepper and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add more hot water during cooking if necessary. About 1/2 glass of water should be left at the end. Remove chicken bones.
Save 2-3 spoons of sugar for later use. Add remaining sugar to a glass of hot water and bring to a boil. Add chicken juice, 2-3 spoons of oil and saffron, and mix well.
Thinly slice almonds and pistachios. Soak almonds in cold water for an hour. Thinly slice orange peels. Boil for a few minutes, drain and repeat. Soak in cold water for an hour, drain, and repeat. Finally boil for a few minutes with three spoons of sugar, and drain.
Prepare rice using the recipe for polow. When rice is rinsed, pour a bit of oil, butter and hot water in a pot, and add 1/2 of rice. Spread chicken pieces over the rice, and cover with 1/2 of remaining rice. Spread half of almonds and orange peel over rice and cover with remaining rice. Pour sugar and chicken-juice mix prepared earlier over rice. Cover and cook over low heat for about 30 minutes. Add remainder of almonds, orange peel, and pistachios, and mix well.
Roxana & Farzin Mokhtarian
Jan 2004
