Sunday, April 6, 2008

Saffron Rice Pudding (aka Sholeh Zard)


I belong to a book club, and we had our monthly meeting this evening. We each bring a food or beverage of our choice and enjoy the goodies while we discuss the book...among other topics. We've been on this kick of reading books that take place in the Middle East (ie Afganistan, Turkey, Iran, India) and some of us like to bring food or beverages that go along with the theme or location of the book. This month's book was Persepolis, which if you haven't read it, I stongly recommend that you do. Anyway, this is an autobiographical graphic novel about a girl growing up in Iran in the 1970s and 80s. So I wanted to make some Persian dish. Never having made Persian food before, and only having eaten it once in my life, I didn't know where to start. So I turned to my trusty friend Google for the answer. It came in the form of Saffron Rice Pudding. I whipped this up today, and I have to say, it was a fairly exciting and enlightening experience. I took one look at the recipe and thought, "There is no way this is going to turn out right." It was a recipe for 8 servings of rice pudding, but it only called for 1 cup of rice. Hmm...something doesn't quite add up for me. I've never made rice pudding before (I know it's shocking, right?) so I wasn't quite sure of the mechanics. I know that rice usually doubles in volume when cooked, and I have eaten rice pudding before so I know that you over-saturate the rice with water and it grows a bit more than twice in volume, but that was the extent of my knowledge on the subject. Let me tell you, I was flabbergasted when, after all was said and done, I ended up with an enormous bowl of this pudding. It has to be nearly a gallon. Which makes sense when I think of how much water goes into it. But I just didn't realize it was physically possible to get 16 times the amount you put it! So I've got 16 cups of rice pudding now (apparently a serving size is 2 cups! RIGHT!) Don't get me wrong, this pudding is really yummy. But since only 4 girls showed up for book club this month, (really poor showing, by the way to any clubbers out there) I am swimming in rice pudding. We hardly made a dent in the giant bowl of ooey gooey goodness. What do you expect when there was also a delightful array of cucumber-yogurt dip, delicious stinky cheeses and other yummy goodies?! So, anyone want to try some Saffron Rice Pudding? I'd gladly send some your way for just $17.95 Shipping and Handling. (Hey, someone's gotta pay for all that Saffron!)