Qanbar Plau is a delicious Shirazi cuisine, which is specifically cooked on special occasions and for special guests. Like most Shirazi dishes, this dish is decorated with a variety of colors, which makes it also look quite appealing.

Ingredients

The required ingredients for making Qanbar Plau for four people:

Rice: three to four cups

Minced meat: 400 grams

Walnut kernels: 50 grams

Piloui raisins: 100 grams

Pomegranate paste: two tablespoons

One large onion

Brewed saffron: three tablespoons

Oil, turmeric, salt, and black pepper: according to taste

Recipe

Soak the rice in cold water one hour before starting the cooking process. The soaking time depends on the type of rice and its freshness, and the fresher the rice, the less soaking time is needed.

Knead the minced meat in a bowl by adding turmeric, salt, and black pepper. When the mixture is well formed, make meatballs of the size of hazelnuts and then fry them. Cut the onion into thin slices and fry it till it turns golden in color. Chop the walnuts, add them to the onion, and continue frying. After a few minutes, it is time to add Piloui raisins. After adding raisins, fry all the ingredients a little. Finally, put the fried meatballs in the pan. Once the ingredients are fried together, add the pomegranate paste, but before doing this, dilute it with a little boiling water. Add the diluted pomegranate paste to the pan along with a tablespoon of brewed saffron and continue frying until all the ingredients are uniform.

Fill a pot halfway with water, add a little turmeric and salt, and let it boil. Drain the water from the soaked rice and pour it into the boiling water. Wait a few minutes until the rice is cooked. Then drain it.

Heat the pot that you intend to cook the Qanbar Plau in and pour some oil in it put slices of potato or bread in the bottom of the pot.

Pour some of the cooked rice on the potato or bread slices and cover it with a thin layer of the mixture made. Pour rice again and continue this process alternatively until the ingredients are finished. Be careful that the last layer must be rice. Pour two tablespoons of oil and the remaining saffron on the rice.

Cover the pot and let steam on a very low flame. You will probably need three-quarters of an hour for this stage. After the rice is well steamed, stir it to form a smooth mixture.

How to Serve Qanbar Plau

If you leave a little bit of the meatballs, you can use them to decorate the food. Scorched rice ortahdig, as one of the most delicious parts of Iranian cuisine, can also be used as a food decoration. As a side dish, you can serve “sabzi khordan” (a mixture of herbs and raw vegetables served with any meal), yogurt, or Shirazi salad.

Qanbar Plau is a delicious Shirazi cuisine, which is specifically cooked on special occasions and for special guests.