Albaloo Polo | Rice with Sour Cherries

The most widely-used ingredient in the Persian cuisine is rice. Sometimes stews are served with it, sometimes it is used as an ingredient in different ”Ash”s (stews). Finally, sometimes, other ingredients are mixed with it and served as a whole thing. Albaloo Polo is one of them.

Albaloo Polo

The main ingredients of Albaloo Polo are Sour Cherries, rice and small meat balls which can be substituted with (shredded) chicken breast. For cooking this dish you need either fresh sour cherries or sour cherry jam.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs

Course Main Course

Cuisine persian

Servings 4 people

Calories 315 kcal

Ingredients

  

• 200 grams sugar
• 500 grams sour cherries
• 300 grams minced meat
• 4 cups rice
• 1 onion
• 1 sliced onion
• Oil as much as required
• Brewed saffron as much as required
• Salt and pepper as much as required
• Almond and pistachio slices as much as required

Instructions

 

PREPARING THE SOUR CHERRIES

• Wash the sour cherries and remove the seeds. Put the seedless sour cherries in a pot and let them boil for a few moments. Then add the sugar and let them boil for 10 minutes. After that, they shouldn't be heated.
• Use a sieve the separate the sour cherries from the juice. Then the juice needs to be heated again in order to become thicker.

PREPARING THE MEAT BALLS

• Put the minced meat in a bowl, wash and grate the onion. After removing its juice, add it to the bowl. Some salt, pepper and turmeric need to added as well. Knead the ingredients until a consistent combination is reached. Take a small piece of the combination and make a small rounded meatball out of it. Do this to all of the combination.
• Use a frying pan and some oil to cook and fry the meatballs. You can also chop an onion and fry it in the same pan. When done, take them out of the pan.

PREPARING THE RICE

• To cook the rice, choose a suitable pot. add some water, salt and oil and let the liquids boil. After they started boiling, add the rice. After adding the rice, it will stop boiling. Wait for the whole thing to start boiling again. It should boil for about 5 minutes. After that, taste some of it. If the center is hard but the other parts are soft, the rice is done.
• Use a sieve to separate the rice from the boiling water. Immediately, rinse the half-cooked rice with some cold water.

COMBINING THE INGREDIENTS

• Choose a pot for preparing the Albaloo Polo. Add some oil and cover the bottom of the pot with some sliced potatoes for Tah Dig. Then add some of the rice (just a layer) and top it with the sour cherries and meatballs. After that, add the next layer of rice and sour cherries and the meatballs. Go on until you run out of ingredients. When done, add ½ cup sour cherry juice (syrup) and 1 tablespoon oil.
• Cover the pot with its lid and at first use a high flame for about 5 minutes and then lower the flame.

Topping and Serving Albaloo Polo

Because of the Sour Cherries the rice already looks pink which is magnificent. Preparing some yellow Saffron Rice can be useful for topping the dish.

You can gently mix the rice, and top it with some saffron ride and pistachio and almond slices.

On the other hand, some fried onions, meatballs and sour cherries can also be used for topping it.

There is always yogurt when serving this. Some Sangak Bread, Sabzi Khordan and Doogh can make this dish more delicious.

Tips for cooking Albaloo Polo

Some people prefer not to eat meat, they prefer poultry. If you are one of them, instead of minced meat, use some chicken breast. You can cook and shred it and continue the process of cooking. If you are not a fan of shredded poultry, cut the chicken breast in pieces and serve it like that.

If you don’t have any sour cherries around you. You can use sour cherry jam. If you want to do so do not follow PREPARING THE SOUR CHERRIES in the recipe.

If you prefer to eat a sour dish rather than a sweet dish, use less sugar but do not eliminate it.