Shirin-Polow

Ingredients: (4 servings)

• basmati or long-grain rice, 500 grams
• chicken, 800 grams
• cooking oil
• butter, 2 spoons
• almonds, 50 grams
• pistachios, 50 grams
• orange peel, 100 grams
• sugar, two spoons
• large onions, two
• sugar, 500 grams
• saffron, 1/2 teaspoon
• salt
• black pepper

Directions:

Soak rice in warm water for 2 hours. Wash chicken. Peel and thinly slice onions. Fry in oil until slightly golden. Add chicken pieces and fry until color changes. Add a glass of hot water, salt and pepper and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add more hot water during cooking if necessary. About 1/2 glass of water should be left at the end. Romove chicken bones.
Save three spoons of sugar for later use. Add remaining sugar to a glass of hot water and bring to a boil. Add chicken juice, 2-3 spoons of oil and saffron, and mix well.
Thinly slice almonds and pistachios. Soak almonds in cold water for an hour. Thinly slice orange peels. Boil for a few minutes, drain and repeat. Soak in cold water for an hour, drain, and repeat. Finally boil for a few minutes with three spoons of sugar, and drain.
Prepare rice using the recipe for polow. When rice is rinsed, pour a bit of oil and hot water in a pot, and add 1/2 of rice. Spread chicken pieces over the rice, and cover with 1/2 of remaining rice. Spread half of almonds and orange peel over rice and cover with remaining rice. Pour sugar and chicken-juice mix prepared earlier over rice. Cover and cook over low heat for about 30 minutes. Add remainder of almonds, orange peel, and pistachios, and mix well.

Sabzii Polow (Herbs Rice - Herbs & Dill Polow)

Ingredients:

• 4 cups (32 Oz) of white long grain rice.
• 4 table spoons of cooking oil.
• 1/2 cup (4 Oz) chopped Chives/Scallion stems (tarreh/piAzcheh).
• 1-1/2 cups (12 Oz) Parsely (jafaree).
• 1 cup (8 Oz) coriander (gheshneez).
• 1-1/2 cups (12 Oz) fresh Dill Weed (sheveed).
• A few large, outer leaves of lettuce.
• 4 Oz of water.

Directions: For best results, soak the rice for a few hours in hot water and salt before cooking.
Wash and drain the vegetables. Using a cutting board and while repeatedly bunching up the vegetables, finely chop them.
In a medium size pot, half-way filled with water, bring the water to a boil. Add the rice (and the water it was soaking in), and let it cook for a few minutes until it starts boiling. Stir the rice a few times during the boiling process. Occasionally chew on a few of rice grains to see if they have softened.
Near the end of boiling, add the fresh chopped vegetables (if you are using dried vegetables do not add them in yet because they will get washed out). Stir the rice one last time and then take it out and drain it in a kitchen stringer. Run the tab water on it to wash out some of the excess salt.
Pour the oil in the pot, add 4 Oz of water, lay the lettuce leaves in the bottom of the pot and add a bit of extra oil if necessary. If you are using dried vegetables in place of fresh ones, you will have to mix them in as you are adding thin layers of rice in the pot, in the shape of a heap.
With the back of a spoon, make five holes, one in the center and four around it so that the rice can breath in the cooking process.
Spread a little water on top and close the lid. Let it cook for a few minutes on high heat. When steam starts to rise, change the setting to medium heat and let it cook for another 15-20 minutes. Then turn the heat to medium-low, sprinkle some cooking oil to prevent drying, and let it cook for about another 10-15 minutes before serving.
HINTS:

• If you have a choice, use any of the Basmati brands of rice (AftAb, Pari, Gilda, Feel-Neshan, etc.) you can buy from middle eastern or Indian stores. But be careful not to overboil these types. They get pretty sticky if you over cook them. If all else fails, use Mahatma brand (American from supermarket). They take longer to soften, and there is less chance of coming out sticky.
• When putting lettuce leaves in the bottom of the pot for purpose of forming bottom crust (tah deeg), it is best to use a teflon coated or any other non stick pot for this purpose. In most cases, after cooking the rice in such pots, you can put a large round plate over the pot, flip it over and get the rice and the crust to come out in one piece.

Kateh

Ingredients: (4 servings)

• Basmati or long-grain rice, 3 cups
• Salt
• Cooking oil

Directions:

Kateh is normally served with kababs or any of the main dishes in this collection, unless rice is already used as one of the ingredients. Kateh is simpler to cook than polow.
Wash three cups of rice with plain water twice and drain the water. Pour rice into a non-stick pan. Add five cups of water, four spoons of oil and two spoons of salt, and mix. Bring the water to a boil over high temperature. Let the water boil until water level sinks to just below rice level. Cover the pan, and cook over low temperature for about half an hour.

Baghali Polow (Lima Bean with Dill Rice - Baghali Shevid Polow)

Ingredients:

• PREPARATION TIME: 20 MINUTES (plus soaking for rice)
• COOKING TIME: 45 MINUTE

• 1 recipe Steamed Rice
• 1 package (10 ounce) frozen baby lima beans, thawed
• 14 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups freshly chopped dill
• 3 medium potatoes, cut into 1/inch slices (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon threads crushed and steeped in 2
• tablespoons hot water
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Prepare Steamed Rice . Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a non-stick 6-quart saucepan. Arrange potato slices in single layer in saucepan.
• Spread one-third of prepared rice over potatoes. Salt and pepper. Cover with half of lima beans, and half of dill. Cover with half of remaining rice and remainder of lima beans and dill. Top with remaining rice. Keep ingredients mounded high in center so steam can circulate. Sprinkle 4 cup water over rice. Slice remaining butter, place over rice. Cover rice with waxed paper. Wrap cover of pot in kitchen towel and place over saucepan to keep steam inside.
• Cook over medium-high heat 8 minutes, reduce heat to low, and cook 35 minutes or until rice is soft and fluffy.
• Set 1 cup rice aside. Mound remaining rice on serving dish. Remove potatoes from saucepan with spatula and place around rice or in separate dish. Sprinkle reserved cup of rice with saffron and mix well. Spread saffron rice on top of plain rice. Season with salt and pepper.

• VARIATION: When layering rice, add 1 large onion, chopped and sauted in butter, 6 broiled lamb chops or 2 pounds cooked boneless lamb shoulder cubes, or 6 cooked chicken cutlets. Increase cooking time by 15 minutes.

Adas Polow - Saffron Rice, Lentils, Meat, raisins, Dates,..

Ingredients:

• lentils, 400 grams
• long-grain or basmati rice, 500 grams
• ground beef or lamb, 400 grams
• dates (pitted), 100 grams
• raisins, 120 grams
• saffron, 1/2 teaspoon
• onions, 2 large
• cooking oil
• salt
• black pepper

Directions:

Soak rice in water for 3-4 hours, then cook in salted water for 10-15 minutes using a non-stick pot until it just softens. Drain water and empty the pot.
Bring 2-3 cups of water to boil. Wash lentil and add to water with a bit of salt. Cook over medium heat for about 15-20 minutes until tender.
Peel and thinly slice onions. Fry in oil until slightly golden. Add ground beef or lamb, salt and black pepper, and fry over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add one cup of hot water and cook until water has been mostly absorbed.
Wash raisins and dates. Pour 1/2 cup of water and some oil in the non-stick pot. Pour in half of the rice. Follow with meat, lentil, raisins, dates and raisins. Then add in remainder of rice. Cook over low heat for about 20 minutes. Dissolve saffron in 1/3 cup of hot water and pour over the rice. Mix well before serving.

Blackbread - Surbrød

Makes 5 small or 3 standard loaves

• 2 packages dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 4½ cups water
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 10 cups rye flour, dark
• 8 cups white flour
• 1 teaspoon caraway seed

Mix the yeast, 1 tablespoon water and sugar in a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients in the order given. Beat well.
Put the dough on a floured board and knead well. Let rise on the board in a warm place until doubled in bulk. Knead well again and shape into loaves. (5 small loaves are better the 3 standard-sized ones if you have pans smaller than 9 × 5 × 3.)
Put into greased pans and return to warm place to rise until again doubled in size.
Bake 10 minutes in a preheated 425º oven, then lower the heat to 325º and bake 1 hour more. Slice very thin.

Beer Bread - Øllebrød

Makes 3 loaves

• 2 cups water
• 1½ cups beer
• 2/3 cup molasses
• 1 package dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon warm water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 5 cups rye flour
• 5 cups white flour

Mix the water, beer and molasses. Add the yeast, softened in the 1 tablespoon of warm water. Add the rest of the ingredients, mixing well. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.
Knead on a floured board. If necessary, use more white flour to make a good stiff dough.
This recipe can be made into 1 loaf or into 3 smaller ones. If you prefer one, place the dough in a floured cloth in a large bowl and let rise again until doubled in bulk. For 3 loaves, divide the dough into 3 equal parts and put each portion into its own floured cloth to rise.
Turn the dough upside down into a well-greased 11×7×2 pan, or 3 pans measuring 7¾×3 5/8×2½.
Bake the single loaf in a preheated 400º oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 325º and bake for 50 minutes more. If you are making 3 small loaves, bake them for 10 minutes at 400º, reduce the heat to 325º and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.