Persian Rice Pilaf with Saffron and Barberries

One of the great things about living in Vancouver is that there is such a variety of ethnic food.   Last weekend I was very lucky to be invited to the home of my colleague, Jila, for a very belated office Christmas party.  The evening began with an assortment of treats:  walnut cookies, pistachios, and pistachio nougat.  Iranian nougat is not sweet and I could easily become addicted to it.  We were served tea in lovely glass mugs with pewter handles.

When it came time for the main meal, we were served
Zareshk Polo (Basmati rice mixed with barberries and saffron)

Ghomreh Sabzi (Sauteed green vegetables and herbs cooked with dried limes, lamb, red kidney beans and Persian seasonings)

Kuku  (a distant relative to the Italian frittata, kuku combines spinach, cilantro, cumin, cardamom and eggs and then it is cooked on the stovetop.)

And a Tzatziki style dip made with yogurt, spinach, garlic and mint.

I loved the berries in the Zereshk Polo and had Jila translated into English so I could go and get “barberries”. They are very tart, so a little goes a long way.

When I went to get the saffron and barberries from the local Persian store, the saleslady didn’t understand what I meant and whipped out her iphone which had an English/Farsi translator.   (She was very pleased with her translation device.) Both saffron and barberries are very expensive, even in Iran, she told me, apologetically and gave me instructions on how to store both.   Apparently I was buying the two most expensive items in the store.

In fact, saffron is considered the most expensive spice in the world.  It is the very thin dried strands (stigma) of the little part in the middle of a certain kind of crocus.  Tens of thousands of strands go into a single ounce, so I guess that explains the cost.

The original notes for the recipe below.

I asked Jila lots of questions at her dinner party and scoured the internet later, for the recipes.   I decided to make my foray into Persian cooking with the Zereshk Polo, because I had the ingredients mostly on hand.   Paul helped me out with the tasting and adjusting because I couldn’t actually find one simple recipe or any consensus.   It looks like everyone has their own take on this dish.


I  made some notes and hoped for the best, keeping Jila’s cooking in mind.








Zereshk Polo : An interpretation

There are four parts to this dish:  the chicken, the rice, the barberries and the saffron.






           Saffron                                                         

If you have mortar and pestle, use them to crush the saffron

Take a few strands of saffron (less than 1/8th of a tsp of saffron) and crush it into a fine powder.


(Transfer the saffron from the package to the bowl with the tip of a spoon or you’ll get precious yellow powder all over your fingers.






Add 2 tbsp of boiling water and stir.














Now it’s ready to use.  You will need two batches for this recipe. One for the rice, the other for the chicken.










Now what do I do with these leftover little strands that I paid an arm and a leg for?  
The lady at the store said to put it directly into an airtight container.  I looked it up and I am going to wrap mine in tinfoil, then put it into an airtight jar and then freeze it.   When I need it, I’ll open it up and take a few strands out and refreeze the remainder.   I’m not putting it just into a freezer bag because that could cause the strands to break up if they get crushed under 5 pounds of hamburger.

 

Barberries

You can prepare the barberries while the chicken is cooking.

Take 1 cup of of barberries and rinse thoroughly.  Internet sources admonish to make sure all the rocks are picked out and that you rinse many time to remove the sand.

I didn't find any rocks, but I rinsed several times because there was a lot of "sand".   Just like with raisins.

Once they are clean, cook them in a little olive oil.  Yes the recipes say to use butter or ghee, but
a) I’m not making ghee, and
b) I try to make everything “heartsmart”.  Butter does not fall into this category.

Okay, so you are sauteeing the barberries in olive oil.  The whole process should not take longer than a couple of minutes because apparently they burn very easily.   After about a minute, add 2 tbsp of white sugar and keep stirring until the sugar is melted into a glaze on the berries.

When I made this, I made it too early, so at the last minute, I just turned the heat back on and stirred for about 30 seconds to reheat the sugar and berries.

Rice:
Apparently, according to the internet, there are very complicated ways to cook Persian rice.

Seriously. 

Get a rice cooker.   

Cook some basmati rice. 

Done.

Chicken
I had both bone-in thighs and boneless breasts.  Anything with the bone in while being cooked is going to be more flavourful but breasts are lower in fat.  It was a tossup - so I used both.  In the end, the thighs were vastly superior in flavour and I would probably use 2 thighs per regular-sized, non-teenaged boy person.

Ingredients

    8 chicken thighs
    1 onion, chopped
    pepper
    1 tsp - 2 tbsp cinnamon to taste (we started with a tsp and by the end had added 2 tbsp total)
    another 1/2 cup of liquid (to add in during the cooking process)
    1 tbsp lime juice to add in the last 5 minutes of cooking



Sauce Mixture
    2 tbsp tomato paste
    1  tbsp lime juice
    1 tsp garlic, crushed
    salt, to taste
    one batch of saffron (prepared as above)
    1/2 cup water, white wine or chicken broth or leftover tea (whatever you’ve got)

   

Two dabs of tomato sauce with lime juice.

adding the saffron liquid

Let's cook

Prepare a portion of saffron.  (see above)





Chop up an onion and fry it up with the chicken pieces until the chicken is nicely browned.Sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon.









When the chicken is nicely browned, add in the mixture of tomato paste, lime juice, pepper, cinnamon, garlic and 1/2 cup of liquid.

Cook, uncovered for 30 - 45 minutes.   You’ll probably need to add liquid throughout the cooking process.  

Towards the end of the cooking process, taste it.

Add additional pepper, cinnamon and another tbsp of lime juice if you think it's a good idea.










Rice
Prepare another portion of saffron.

In a bowl, mix some (1-1/2 cups) cooked rice with the saffron and mix well.  Fold in the barberries.



















 Assembly
Put the white rice in the middle of the plate.

Spoon a portion of the saffron/barberry rice on top.
Arrange chicken in a pleasing manner around the rice.
This can be done either in individual portions or on a large “family style” plate.

Enjoy.