Sabzi Polo

Fenugreek is the herb that makes it, and it goes in at a fraction of the weight of the others.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 500 g long-grain white rice
• 3 tablespoons salt, for the soaking and parboiling water
• 100 g coriander, chopped
• 100 g flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 80 g dill, chopped
• 80 g chives or spring onion tops, chopped
• 20 g fenugreek leaves, chopped, or 8 g dried
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, ground and steeped in 3 tablespoons hot water
• 80 ml sunflower oil

Method

1. FENUGREEK IS THE HERB THAT MAKES IT, AND IT GOES IN AT A FRACTION OF THE WEIGHT OF THE OTHERS. Twenty grams against a hundred each of coriander and parsley. Its own article lists coriander, dill, chives or scallions, fenugreek, garlic and parsley, and of those six only fenugreek has a flavour strong enough to take the dish over: it is bitter, slightly burnt-sugar, and at equal weight with the others it is all you can taste. Leave it out altogether and you have a pleasant green rice that is not this dish. The proportion is the recipe.
2. THE HERBS GO IN RAW AND CHOPPED, NEVER COOKED FIRST. Nearly four hundred grams of them, chopped fine and layered through the rice to cook in the steam alone. Fried or boiled first they darken and lose the top notes, and the pot comes out a uniform dark green instead of white rice shot through with it.
3. THEY MUST BE BONE DRY BEFORE THEY ARE CHOPPED. Washed, then spun in a salad spinner or rolled in a towel and left for half an hour. Wet herbs carry their water into the pot and the base of the rice goes claggy.
4. DRIED HERBS WORK AND THE WEIGHT CHANGES. Its article allows both fresh and dried. Dried, use about a third of the weight and add them to the rice rather than layering -- they have no bulk and will not sit in a seam.
5. THE RICE IS SOAKED IN SALTED WATER AND PARBOILED TO A FIRM CORE. Rinse until clear, two hours in cold salted water, drain, then six to eight minutes at a hard boil with the rest of the salt. A grain should give at the outside and still be chalky in the middle. Drain and rinse briefly with lukewarm water.
6. IT IS LAYERED AND HEAPED, THEN STEAMED FOR FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. Oil in the pot, then rice and herbs in three rounds with the garlic in the middle layer, heaped into a cone, saffron water over the top. Cloth-wrapped lid, five minutes medium, forty-five on the lowest heat.
7. IT IS THE NOWRUZ DISH AND IT IS EATEN WITH FISH. Its article is specific: Iranians eat it at lunch on the Persian New Year with the Caspian white fish, the kutum, alongside family. Any firm white fish, fried or grilled whole, does the same job -- the herbs want something clean and salty next to them.
8. PICKLED GARLIC IS PART OF IT, NOT A GARNISH. Served with seer torshi, garlic pickled until the cloves have gone soft and dark, and other pickled herbs. The rice is green and mild and the sourness of the pickle is what keeps a large plate of it interesting.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Iran · All recipes