Once upon a time in America, when I was a child, there were only three television stations available to most of the country, and they were accessible to anyone who had an antenna attached to the roof and the price of a set. Amazing! The offerings then were different from today’s steady diet of serial killers and “reality” shows: there were police dramas (the police were the good guys), sitcoms, variety shows, the evening news, and game shows, for the most part. One of the latter was “I’ve Got a Secret”, where panelists tried to guess what the secret was. I probably watched this show many times, but one show has stuck with me for decades. I’m guessing I’m still thinking about it now and then because it had a lesson to teach me.

The story (“secret”) featured a woman who had worn the same dress for a year (washed daily, she said), and her husband and young teenage son had never noticed this. Not in a whole year. Kitty Carlisle, an elegant, fastidiously groomed, and sophisticated woman, who had been married to Moss Hart (look it up), was a panelist. Let me just say, Kitty and I were horrified by this story, and I was probably ten years old or younger. All my sympathy was with this woman. Her family, seated in the audience, looked suitably abashed.

But she got her revenge, didn’t she, by exposing and humiliating them on national television. It’s really kind of a mean story on both sides, and without belaboring or judging this further, it’s a close call as to which party’s behavior was worse. I wonder what happened next.

And the lesson? I guess I’m a slow learner, but what I think, now, is that if you keep offering up the same old same old, it can only lead to an unfortunate result: boredom all around. I realize this may be a stretch as a lead-in to a recipe, but I figure the kitchen is as good a place as any to start changing things up.

I like a Persian restaurant in London called Mohsen. It’s pretty modest, but it’s full of Iranians and good food. One time our waiter insisted we try something called shirin polo (sweet rice), available only sometimes. This is a celebratory dish served at festivals and weddings, and it’s a good thing to try at this time of year, when oranges are in season.



Shirin Polo

Oranges  Buy several, let’s say half a dozen. Organic only, you’re going to eat the peel.
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup slivered blanched almonds
1/3 cup slivered unsalted pistachios — you’ll have to sliver them yourself
3 cups uncooked basmati rice
Optional:  saffron, an onion, raisins or sultanas

Using a vegetable peeler, cut just the orange colored peel from the oranges. Don’t cut into the bitter white pith, just the outer layer is what you want. Flatten the pieces onto a cutting board and cut them into very fine slivers with a very sharp knife. You want a cup of this, lightly packed. It will take a while to do this, and it’s worth it.

Put the zest into a saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil, uncovered, 5 to 7 minutes, drain. Do this again, with fresh water.

Put the sugar and water in the  saucepan, bring to a boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the zest, reduce the heat to low medium, and cook until the liquid is reduced to about three tablespoons, stirring occasionally. Using a slotted spoon, remove the zest, which should look fairly transparent at this point, to a plate. Spread it out and let it cool. This can be done the day before, keep it refrigerated until you need it. Let it come to room temperature before adding it to the dish. If you keep the syrup, you can use it on ice cream, etc.

If you want an onion in your dish, saute it, thinly sliced or chopped, in a mixture of a few tablespoons of butter and oil until it is lightly browned. If you want saffron, dissolve a pinch in a few tablespoons of water, keep aside. If you use raisins or sultanas, they should be fresh, not hard and dry.

Mohsen did not use any of these optional ingredients. I called them a few times when I was figuring this out, because online recipes for shirin polou use a big variety of other ingredients, carrots in particular. But no, they said, only the ingredients listed above. I have used some of the optional ingredients listed above, and they were good, but the dish stands very well on its own without them. I usually don’t fiddle.

Cook the rice, mix in onion and raisins if you’re using them. Put the rice into a buttered serving dish and, if you’re using the dissolved saffron, drizzle it over the rice. At this point, a few hours before serving, you can cover this and keep it on the counter. Reheat it, covered, at 300 to 325 degrees for about half an hour, it should be hot. Put a few dots of butter onto the rice before reheating, don’t go crazy.  Before serving, spread the orange peel over the surface and sprinkle with the almonds and pistachios.

This is good served with lamb, and the picture shows it being served with the chicken Florentine casserole I gave you the recipe for a few weeks ago. The rice is only slightly sweet, and it is unusual. It’s surprising how so few ingredients can synthesize into something so very good.

This recipe will serve four or five, depending on what else is on the menu. The photograph shows a doubled recipe, more than enough to feed ten. If you double it, use only one and a half times the orange peel and nuts.

Life can be pretty quiet this time of year. Step things up. Maybe this recipe can help you get started.

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Written by
Pamela Osborne