Sholezard

There is no milk or cream in it: the rice is cooked in water until it goes creamy by itself.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter).

Ingredients

• 250 g short-grain white rice
• 1.8 litres water
• 350 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon saffron threads, ground and steeped in 4 tablespoons hot water
• 4 tablespoons rose water
• 80 g butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• ground cinnamon, slivered almonds and slivered pistachios, to decorate

Method

1. THERE IS NO MILK OR CREAM IN IT: THE RICE IS COOKED IN WATER UNTIL IT GOES CREAMY BY ITSELF. Its own article makes a point of this -- it has a creamy and smooth consistency despite not being made with cream or milk. That is the whole trick and it is the opposite of every other rice pudding. Two hundred and fifty grams of short-grain rice in nearly two litres of water, cooked slowly until the grains have burst and surrendered their starch, is what produces the texture. Add milk and you get a perfectly nice rice pudding that is not this, and you also lose the clear saffron yellow, because milk turns it pale and opaque.
2. THE RICE IS SHORT-GRAIN AND IT IS NOT RINSED. The surface starch is the thickener here. Rinsing it off is right for every steamed rice on these pages and wrong for this one.
3. THE WATER GOES IN ALL AT ONCE AND IT IS A LOT. Seven times the weight of the rice. It cooks down over an hour and a quarter at a bare simmer, stirred often, until the grains have collapsed and it drops thickly off a spoon.
4. IT IS STIRRED OFTEN AND FROM THE BOTTOM. With that much starch and no milk, it catches easily, and a scorched patch is bitter and shows as brown flecks in a dessert whose point is being yellow.
5. THE SUGAR GOES IN ONLY AFTER THE RICE HAS BROKEN DOWN. Sugar added early slows the grains softening considerably. Once it is creamy, then the sugar, then another twenty minutes.
6. THE BUTTER AND SAFFRON GO IN TOGETHER NEAR THE END. Eighty grams of butter and the saffron water, stirred through for the last fifteen minutes. The butter is the only fat in the dish and it is what makes it taste rich without dairy.
7. THE ROSE WATER AND CARDAMOM GO IN OFF THE HEAT. Both are aromatic and both are lost to a simmer. Stirred in once the pan is off the flame, then poured into dishes.
8. IT SETS AS IT COOLS AND IT IS DECORATED COLD. Poured into shallow dishes and left until cold and set firm, then patterned on top with ground cinnamon, almonds and pistachios -- its article names all three. The cinnamon is usually sifted through a stencil in lines or a pattern.
9. IT IS MADE IN LARGE QUANTITIES AND GIVEN AWAY. Its article records it made and distributed in substantial quantities at religious ceremonies, and used especially for breaking the fast during Ramadan. Its article also notes it is generally cooked one way, so there is no variant section to report.

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