Sweetmoi

Does anyone have a good and reliable Zarda Recipe .. Every time I make it, it turns so oily and stuff .. not good! .. Someone help me plz

Ira

sweetmoi, if you do a search for zarda in this forum, you will find several threads/recipes posted for it.

Personally mine turns out different every time

Sweetmoi

is there a function where u can search quicker through the forum? I dont see it

Ask99

You want the super easy one...or the u know 5 star one?

Sweetmoi

haha .. the one which tastes the best

CorruptAngel

I make zarda using Zubeda Tariq's recipe(also on khanapakana.com) and it turns out perfect everytime. It's a very easy recipe.

Ingredients:

Rice Saila 3 cups, soaked for 6-7 hours (these are the best but I don't have saila so I use Basmati rice)
Sugar 2 ½ cups ( can adjust it according to your taste)
Milk 1 cup
Cloves 4
Pistachios 10, peeled and finely chopped
Almonds 10, peeled and finely chopped
Cardamoms 6-8
Yellow food color ½ tsp (I use orange)
Colored ashrafies few, cut in twos
Ghee 1 cup (can use butter)
Water

Method:
Bring water to boil in a large pan, add drained rice, 2 cloves and 3 cardamoms. When rice is almost done, strain in a colander and leave in colander for a few minutes. Turn the rice out in a large open bowl.
Mix in the food color, milk, nuts, sugar and ashrafies. (I usually just boil milk in pan, add sugar and color and cook for a couple of minutes and then add rice and nuts and ghee at last). Heat oil in a large pan; add cardamom and cloves and rice. Stir with a wooden spoon, cover and cook on high heat for five minutes. Then put the pan on a tawa and put on heat.
Lower heat after a few minutes, leave till rice is done. Serve hot or cold.
Serves: 10

Ruiner

^
how can you soak rice for 6 or 7 hours? won't it turn into mush?

Lusi

yeah 7-8 hrs is way too long. it should be 20-40 mins...

CorruptAngel

I have never used Saila rice so I really don't know if they need to be soaked for that much time...

soaking time for basmati is 30 mins or less.

CorruptAngel

You soak Saila rice for only 20-40 mins?

I have never used them so just curious.

Lusi

I have just asked my mom and she said that you soak them for atleast 30 mins to an hour and yeah they are basically used for making zarda.

Skittlez

Soak 1 cup of rice for an hour. Blanch almonds and slice them, warm some raisins in the microwave, and set aside other things like pistachios or dry coconut if you want to use them later on. Combine food coloring and three cardamoms (slice open but throw the entire pod in there), and bring to boil. Keep the heat on high and add the rice in. When it is half cooked... take out the rice and set aside in a drainer. Heat about 5 or 6 tbsp of oil and about 4 or 5 more cardomoms (this time without the pod, just the seeds) for a few seconds, add a little less than 1/2 a cup of water and then quickly cover and cook on medium heat for like a minute. Then add a cup of sugar (or more according to your preference), the almonds, pistachio, raisins and rice. Let it cook for about 3-5 minutes more. Finally, do the damm and you're done!

Ira

I had never heard of saila rice before i went to Pak last winter. Supposedly bsmati is the best and that is what is exported from Pak but people in Pak use Saila since its a bit cheaper.

Btw CA, i used the recipe you listed to make zarda today and it turned out pretty good. I always mess up the amount of oil so now i will write these ratios somewhere. Thanks for sharing.

CorruptAngel

i'm glad you liked the recipe, ira.

Saila rice is similar to brown rice. It's also used in afghani pilau and chinese recipes...It has a little different texture and taste..Anyways, I'm not sure how many types are there but I saw "Basmati Saila" at devon avenue, it was same price as the regular basmati.

btw, I searched for saila on google and it came up with some recipes and all recipes suggested different soaking times so I would say, just follow the packaging instructions.

Sweetmoi

Thank you girls! Im gonna try on friday. Hope it works

aniiisa

1 cup rice (soak for about 30 mins or longer)
3/4 cup sugar
40g butter
7 or so cardamoms
4 cloves
juice of 1 lemon and lemons rind
almonds
1/2 cup milk
food colouring

put water onto boil add food colouring and some cardamons
put rice into water and boil until the rice are partially cooked
drain the rice
in another pan add cardamons, cloves,sugar with about 1/4 cup milk
boil for a few minutes
add lemon juice and the lemon rind
add butter
cook for a few mins till all the butter melts, add the almonds
put this into a big pan with the partially boiled rice
stir
put on a slow heat for about 10mins or so.

done! :-)

Mirch

Two cents from a man who is now master at the art of desi cooking.

Use pre-boiled rice it is called sela rice in Pakistan. In USA you can find pre-boiled basmati rice in desi stores and even in some mainstream stores too. Oh by the way they are boiled and then they are dried up again.
Also since you cannot find Ashrafi in USA , but you can find tuti fuiti mix in mainstream stores which works as good as ashrafi they sell that mix for making fruit cakes.
If you top the zarda off with khoia also that is best for Zarda.
I also put cherries which are sold in bottles for topping off ice cream , they add more color to the zarda , they come in all sorts of colors. Kids love zarda if you put those cherries in it.