The King of all Persian dishes, the Persian Jewelled Rice or Morasa Polow bedazzles the eye with twinkles of red, green, orange and gold. Morasa means jewels.Last Updated May 2023.
2Tbspliquid saffron(pinch of saffron + 2 Tbsp hot water)
3Tbspghee or butter
The "Jewels"
60gdried barberries
30graisins
1medium onionsliced
1medium carrotjulieened
2Tbspolive oil
2½tspsugar
2Tbspdried Seville orange peelOr use the peel of a fresh orange, not white bits
30gtoasted almond flakes
30gpistachios slithers
2tspadvieh for polosub with large pinch of ground cinnamon, ground cumin and ground cardamom seeds
Garnish
1Tbspmelted butter or ghee
1tsprose water
plus half the barberries from above
Instructions
Let's Parboil the Rice
Fill a large heavy based saucepan with water, add the salt and bring it to a boil.
Add the rice. Bring it back to boil and cook for 3-5 minutes. If you’ve soaked your rice, check it after 3 minutes, get a grain and bite it, it should be soft on the outside and just resistant on the inside, not raw solid but almost cooked solid. If you’ve not soaked your rice, this stage will be around the 5 minute mark but every rice is different.
Drain the rice and set aside.
Let's prep our "Jewels"
Put the kettle on and place the raisins in a small bowl. Leave to soak for 10-15 minutes while you get everything else done.
Halve, then slice the onions. Set aside. Cut the carrots into thin sticks (julienned), set aside.
Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil on medium-low heat and sauté the onions for 3 minutes. Tip onto a plate and set aside.
Add a second Tbsp of olive oil and sauté the carrots for 2 minutes, then add 1 tsp of sugar, stir thoroughly and continue cooking for another minute. Remove to a plate and set aside.
Bring a small saucepan of water to boil with a tsp of added sugar. Add the orange peel in, simmer for 5 minutes. Drain, and set aside.
Heat 1 Tbsp of butter in the same frying pan and toss the barberries in, along with the final ½ tsp sugar and fry for a minute. The sugar will dissolve and counter the tartness, the butter will take on the flavour of the barberries and the sugar. Tip out onto a plate to stop them burning.Half will be for cooking the rice, the other half for topping.
Let's cook our Morasa Polo!
In case you forget, take out about 1 Tbsp of onions, carrots, orange peel and half the barberries, and set aside. This will be the garnish.
Drain the raisins and set aside.
Time to cook the rice. Wipe the earlier saucepan dry and place on medium heat. Add 2 tbsp of ghee and 1 tbsp of saffron and swirl it around in your saucepan for a few seconds.
Add 2-3 ladles of the rice and flatten. If this is your first time, and you're not so sure or not so fast, lower the heat while you layer up the rice and ingredients, to stop the tahdig from burning. We will keep aside a small amount of every ingredient for garnishing, about 1 heaped tbsp.
Cook the tahdig for about a minute, then add a third of your rice, gently, with a spatula, spreading it out.
Next, sprinkle half of every other ingredient on the list, apart from the garnish.
Follow again by the next third of the rice, then second half of the other ingredients (not the garnish) and finish off with the final third portion of the rice.
Using your ladle/spatula, bring the top rice layer to the middle, forming a conical shape. The reason for this is that traditional chelow pots were conical, giving you a wide base for your tahdig. Also given the long cooking time, whatever rice that touches the saucepan is going to crisp up slightly. So you want as much of the rice away from the edges as possible.
Using the other end of your ladle, poke some holes into the rice, these are the steam “vents”, to allow the steam to come through.
Wrap the saucepan lid up with the towel and place on the saucepan, ensuring it’s a tight fit. The towel is there to absorb any excess moisture, preventing soggy rice. Make sure your tea towel is nowhere near the flame!
Cook on that same medium heat for 5 minutes. This should be enough time for the steam to build up. My mum used to wet her fingers and touch the side of the saucepan and if it “sizzled” that meant there was enough steam.
At this stage, lower the heat right down and let the rice steam away for 30 minutes, giving you a rich golden tahdig, as in the picture on this page. Cook it for 45 minutes for a darker and crunchier tahdig.
At the end of the cooking time, take it off the heat, let rest for 5 minutes.
Dish up
Dish up the polow onto a serving platter and scatter all the leftover ingredients all over the rice.
Mix the melted butter or ghee with the rose water and sprinkle all over the rice and garnish. Finish up with the pomegranate seeds.
Dish the tahdig up in a separate plate and break it up for the diners to help themselves to.