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Zerde

Made with water and no milk at all, which is what lets the saffron colour show.

Vegan.

Ingredients

to finish

Method

  1. IT IS MADE WITH WATER AND NO MILK AT ALL, which is what lets the saffron colour show and is the single thing to know about it. Every other rice pudding here is a milk pudding; this one is rice cooked in water and sweetened, set lightly with cornflour. Milk would turn the saffron's clear translucent gold into an opaque pale yellow, and the dish is specifically about that colour -- it is served at celebrations partly for how it looks. It also means the texture is quite different: glassy and light rather than creamy, closer to a set fruit jelly with rice in it.
  2. THE SAFFRON IS STEEPED IN HOT WATER FIRST AND GOES IN LATE. A large pinch crushed between the fingers and left in a few tablespoons of hot water for twenty minutes until the water is deep orange, then added to the pan for the last five minutes. Thrown in dry at the start, much of the colour and most of the aroma is lost over the cooking time.
  3. THE RICE IS COOKED UNTIL IT IS GENUINELY SOFT AND BREAKING. Forty minutes in a great deal of water, far longer than for a savoury dish. The grains should be splitting at the ends. Still firm, they sink to the bottom of the set pudding and it eats as water on top of rice.
  4. THE SUGAR GOES IN AFTER THE RICE IS SOFT. Two hundred and fifty grams is a lot of sugar, and in that concentration it slows the rice from absorbing water and softening. Added at the start, the grains stay firm however long they boil.
  5. THE CORNFLOUR IS ONLY TWO TABLESPOONS AND IT IS MEANT TO BE BARELY SET. Slaked in cold water and stirred in at the end. It should set to a soft, just-holding consistency that trembles -- not a firm pudding. More and it becomes opaque and gluey, which loses the translucency the whole dish is for.
  6. THE PINE NUTS GO IN THE PAN AND THE REST ON TOP. Pine nuts added for the last ten minutes so they soften and swell inside the pudding; pistachios, currants and pomegranate scattered over once it is cold and set.
  7. The saffron crushed between the fingers and STEEPED in a few tablespoons of HOT water 20 MINUTES, until deep orange.
  8. The rice rinsed and simmered in the 1.5 litres of water 40 MINUTES, until genuinely soft and SPLITTING at the ends.
  9. ONLY NOW the sugar stirred in and dissolved.
  10. The pine nuts added and cooked 10 MINUTES.
  11. The steeped SAFFRON WATER, threads and all, stirred in for the last 5 MINUTES.
  12. The cornflour slaked in a little cold water and stirred in, then cooked 2 MINUTES until it just thickens.
  13. The rose water stirred in off the heat.
  14. Poured into individual glass bowls -- glass, so the colour shows.
  15. Cooled and chilled 4 HOURS, until BARELY set and trembling.
  16. TESTED: it should be translucent gold and only just set. Opaque or firm means too much cornflour, or milk got in.
  17. Scattered with pistachios, soaked currants and pomegranate seeds.

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 Turkey · All recipes