Polo Kalam - Beryl Shereshewsky

Polo Kalam

IRAN

Cabbage in its most celebratory form

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Mahsa

Polo Kalam

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Ingredients

500-750 g cabbage
150-200 g ground beef
2 cups long-grain rice Wash your rice and soak it rice in salted water for 1 hour before cooking. Once ready to cook, remove the water and rinse the rice before adding it to the pot with boiling water.
50-70 g fresh chives
50-70 g fresh dill
50-70 g fresh basil
2 onions
2 tsp turmeric
juice of half a lemon

Instructions

Cut cabbage in quarters and thinly slice. Avoid very long shreds.
In a pan, add enough oil to cover the surface and saute/fry your cabbage. Season lightly with some salt and turmeric (to your liking). Set aside.
Thinly slice one of the onions and caramelize it in the same pan. Add the cabbage and the lemon juice to the pan, mix for a couple of minutes, and remove from the heat.
Next, puree your onion in a mini food processor (you can use a box grater as well but the food processor is easier) remove as much liquid from the onion as you can (don't be too hard with yourself just squeeze as much as possible).
Add the almost liquid-free onion to the meat along with a teaspoon of turmeric, salt, and black pepper to taste. Some add paprika or other seasonings if you like. It comes down to your preferred way of seasoning your meat.
Knead the beef until everything is fully combined and you see the meat forming a consistent sticky mixture.
Form small meatballs (the same size as a large hazelnut) with the meat rolling the meatballs in your hands until they're fully round. Add some oil to a pan and fry the meatballs until golden brown and cooked.
Finely chop your herbs. You can saute the herbs for a couple of minutes to help boost the flavor and soften them a bit.
In a large pot, bring some water to boil (at least 6 cups) and add salt the way you add salt when you cook your pasta. Cook the rice uncovered on high heat until al dente). Once ready, drain the water from the rice using a strainer and wash it a bit with warm water.
In a pot (probably the same one you used to prepare the rice) add some oil to cover the surface, use nonstick if possible, then add a layer of rice, add a layer of herbs, and cabbage/onion mix on the top, top it with more rice and continue layering. Ideally, the last layer should be the cabbage mix. Try scooping the rice away from the pot walls, making a mountain in the middle, then with the handle of your spatula, make some holes here and there in the rice pile in the pot.
Add the meatballs to the rice pile, cover the pot, and let it cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes depending on your burner (you don't want to burn the bottom layer but you want to see steam forming in the pot) then reduce the heat to low and let it cook another 30-40 minutes until the rice is fully cooked.
When the rice is cooked, remove the meatballs and mix the rice, cabbage, and herbs together. Serve with meatballs on top.

Course: Dinner

Region: Asia

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