zarda — India

Zarda is a sweet rice dish from the Indian subcontinent, made by boiling rice and then folding it into a ghee and sugar syrup scented with saffron or a yellow food coloring, cardamom, raisins and nuts such as pistachios or almonds. The name comes from the Persian word for yellow, a reference to the dish's bright color. The dish is reported across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and is closely related to sholezard in Iran and zerde in Turkey, forming part of a wider family of sweet saffron rice desserts that stretches from Iran through South Asia. It is served after meals and is especially associated with celebrations such as weddings and other festive occasions. To prepare it, rice is boiled until just tender and drained, while saffron is steeped in warm milk to draw out its color and aroma. Ghee is heated with cardamom pods, then raisins and nuts are fried briefly before sugar and a little water are added to form a light syrup. The boiled rice and saffron milk are folded in and cooked gently over low heat, stirred carefully so the grains stay whole, until the color turns a deep yellow. What distinguishes one version of zarda from another is mainly the choice of coloring and added richness: some cooks rely on saffron alone, others on food coloring so the grains take on several shades, and special-occasion versions add khoya, candied fruit or small fried sweetmeat pieces. The balance of sugar to rice, and the amount of ghee, also varies considerably between households and regions, while the base method of boiling the rice separately before combining it with a sweet syrup stays the same.