Meetha Pulao

Sating the sweet tooth with something Meetha

Almost everyone in my family has a sweet tooth. But I will be pompous and say it out aloud that I am usually the only one who makes an effort to prepare a homemade sweet dish to sate cravings! I love homemade sweets and have grown up eating, not store bought ice creams and chocolates but homemade Ladoos, Kheer, Panjeeri, Halwa and this Meetha Pulao amongst other things. There were jalebis too, but they were bought from the best available Halwai shop in the area.

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Kanika’s recent posts have added more sweet dishes like Gulgule, Poode and Malpue to my repertoire now. These were things that were made at home but occasionally. So I hope to make these more often in the future. But I don’t remember exactly when and where I first had Meethe Chawal or Meetha Pulao (Sweet Pilaf). Like Poode, Gulgule etc these were dishes that was only made at home either Basant Panchami or Baisakhi.

Yellow, the colour so reminiscent of the Punjab’s Sarson (Mustard) fields in the season of Basant (Spring), of harvests of the fertile land, is often seen on our plates on such special festivals.

This is what my mother told me when I asked her if any special sweets are made on Baisakhi or Basant Panchami. I don’t think I cared so much about this fact as a kid. Most of the time, I was just craving something sweet and this was made on just a whim.
I soon learnt how to make these but I often struggled to cook the rice properly as they were cooked with the sugar. Making them like a regular pulao never gave satisfactory results. It was tasty but I wanted the rice to be softer and yet separate. Like they are in a Biryani.

What is the perfect recipe for Persian inspired Meetha Pulao?

Until, I found a good recipe for these in Veronica Rani Sidhu’s book “Menus and Memories from Punjab” that Kanika recently gifted me. She describes them to have been inspired from Persian Sweet rice like the Zarda and uses citrus zest which we never did at home! The technique for cooking rice was more like a biryani. I just had to try the recipe out!
 

To my relief, it came out better than what I had been making. But I would still add more water while cooking the rice in this recipe.

Here is my adaptation of her recipe for Meethe Chawal.

Ingredients
Basmati rice, 1 cup
Raisins, 2 tablespoons
Orange zest, 1 teaspoon 
Salt, 1/4 teaspoon 
Saffron strands,1/2 teaspoon 
A small piece of cinnamon stick
Clove, 1
Cardamom, 2
sugar, 3/4 cup (or jaggery*)
Ghee, 1 tablespoons
A handful of Almonds

Method

Start by washing and draining the basmati rice. Now boil a litre of water and add salt in a deep pan. Once the water boils, add the raisins and rice. Boil for 7-8 minutes and then drain.
To the drained rice, add crushed saffron and orange zest. Mix carefully to avoid breaking the rice. You will notice that the rice will turn a brilliant yellow soon.

Next, crush the cardamom. Sliver or crush the almonds as well.
In another pan, heat ghee on low heat. Once it melts add the crushed cardamom, clove, cinnamon sticks and almonds. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then add the sugar. I used 3/4th cup of sugar for 1 cup of rice. You can use less sugar if you don’t want the rice to be too sweet.

Substitutes for Sugar

*I haven’t tried using jaggery yet because I wasn’t sure of the quantity and how it would change the colour of the rice. If you’re confident about the amount of jaggery then please use it and tell us your experience in the comments. I will update the recipe with notes below once I make another version with jaggery.

Cooking the rice till it’s soft

Stir in the sugar and be careful to keep the heat on low.
Now without waiting for too long, add the rice and mix it in carefully. Add half a cup of water and shut the lid and let it cook covered for 20 minutes.

Check the rice after 20 minutes if the rice is well cooked. You can add a tablespoon of water again and shut the pan for another 5-6 minutes till the rice is completely cooked. 

Serve this fragrant Meetha Pulao warm as a side to a meal or as a dessert.