Zarda Pulao ( Sweet Rice)

Zarda Pulao, also known as Zafrani Pulao, is a Sweet Rice dish. It is a festive delicacy of North India. Zafrani Pulao basically belongs to the Nawabi delicacies of India; it is prepared on the occasion of marriages and regional festivals.

My mom used to make it on Basant Panchami may be because of its zafrani color.
Try this sweet rice preparation enriched with high calories ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Basmati Rice
• 1 cup sugar (can be adjusted according to own taste)
• 3 Green Cardamoms (Crushed)
• 3 Clove
• 3 tbsp Ghee
• Few Raisins
• 1 tsp chironji
• Cashew Nuts
• Few strands of saffron soaked in warm water
• Pinch of Saffron food color
• 2 tbsp Rose Water
• 1 ½ cups of warm water

Method:

• Wash the rice with soft hand twice or thrice until the water runs clear and then, soak for 15 minutes.
• Melt ghee in a cooking pan and add cloves and cardamoms, fry for a minute until fragrant.
• Add rice and continue frying until all the grains are well coated with ghee.
• Pour warm water and milk over the rice and cook on low heat till it is almost done.
• Now add sugar, saffron food color, soaked saffron, nuts, raisins, rose water and cook for another 5 minutes until the rice is completely cooked.
• Fluff it up with a fork and serve.

Note: You can add crushed khoya to make it rich. Some of houses also use canned pineapple, which is diced and added to the pulao during the last minute of the cooking of rice.