Ground beef mixed polow

General Note: Whether as lunch or dinner, one of the most mainstream Iranian main dishes consists of rice – plain, white chelow, or mixed polow— and a meat stew (khoresh). Now…, chelow must always accompany khoresh, while polow, layered with cooked or fried grains, vegetables, prunes, fruits or meat forms a complete dish as long as it is accompanied by side-dishes such as fresh herbs and salads. Mixed polow comes in tens of varieties, some more standard than the others. I will tag them all, as I post them here. To start, here is one of the less mainstream ones: ground beef mixed polow

Ingredients: Rice, 3 cups. Ground veal or beef, 300 gr. Potato, 1 medium. Onion,1  big. Powder dried lime, 1 full tbs. turmeric half tbs. cooking oil, 2 tbs. A pinch of saffron. Salt and black pepper as needed.

Method: Thinly slice onion and stir-fry in cooking oil until golden brown (this is your piaz-daagh). Add ground meat and fry for at least ten minutes until brownish; stir constantly to separate the meat in smallest bits possible. Add turmeric, salt, pepper, dried lime and mix well. Cut the peeled potato in small cubes; rinse and add them to the frying pan. Stir well while frying the mix for another five minutes. Put the pan aside.

Prepare the rice in usual way (soaked in salted water, drained, boiled in lots of water, drained, and steamed cooked for at least one hour). At the stage when you want to mount the rice back in to the pot, simply mix it with the contents of your frying pan first. You could also pour them back in the pot in layers (one layer of drained white rice and one layer of meat mix). If the latter method is used, the pot’s contents should be mixed well when you want to serve. I also sprinkle powdered saffron on the top of the mixed polow before letting it steam cook. The steam releases saffron’s taste and colour. However, a more conventional way of using saffron is to soak it in warm water for 15 minutes and mix it with a small portion of rice and then use that portion as garnish on top of the serving dish.