Zarda | Modur Polav | Kashmiri Sweet Pulao for ICC

Modur Pulao or Zarda is a traditional sweet dish from the beautiful valley of Kashmir. This dish has saffron as its main spice and obviously the color of the dish comes from this spice that is so unique to the valley.

As the name suggests the dish is sweet and is one of the very few sweets from the Kashmiri cuisine.When the recipe for this month’s edition of Indian Cooking Challenge, I was not sure if I would be making it. Yet on the dead line date, I somehow wanted to prepare this dish. The only drawback being I did not have tutti frutti.

I have already been searching for it and I did not find it all these days. I searched almost all the stores I know and on the dead line I wanted to find it no matter what.

So when Lil dude took hi noon nap, I called up my SIL and asked her if she would join me for shopping and the nice lady that she is, readily agreed.

It is summer now and many don’t dare to venture out in the scorching heat, especially for something so mundane as the tutti frutti.

But we went out and looked up many stores in our area and finally all that we could get were these cherries that you see in this recipe….

I came home and was terribly thirsty in spite of having a musk melon juice while shopping I had lunch and Lil dude woke up. Finally I was able to prepare this dish in the evening.

It tasted great. My folk are not fond of sweets these days and I had to finish off most of it.Now to the recipe…

I used:

Basmati rice – 1/2 cup
Sugar – 4 tablespoons
Roasted and Chopped nuts – I used pistachio and almonds, cashews – a handful
Bay leaf -1
Cloves- 2
Cinnamon- 1 ” piece
Cardamom- 2
Glazed cherries – a handful, chopped
Milk- 1/2 cup
Water- 1/2 cup
Saffron strands soaked in a tablespoon of warm milk

1. Wash the basmati rice and drain.
2. Rub the saffron strands into the milk and keep aside.
3. In a pan heat sugar and water and simmer till it dissolves.Switch off the pan.
4. Heat the another pan and put in ghee. 
5. Add the cardamom, cloves,cinnamon, cardamom and when you get a good aroma, add the rice.
6. Saute gently for a few minutes on low flame.
7. Add the sugar syrup and cook till the rice is almost done.
8. Now add the milk, saffron, half of the nuts and cherries and mix gently.
9. Cover and cook till the rice is fully cooked.
10. Remove from heat, add the remaining nuts and cherries and serve.

Take a look at the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#27

 

Logo courtesy : Preeti