Scholeh Zardeh or Rice Pudding

This is a dessert from the Iranian kitchen. But it can be found in other countries in the Middle East.

One of my coworkers is from Turkey. She told me that she knows that with a bit different name from home. She warned me not to underestimate the amount of sugar in this dish. Her advice was to drastically reduce the sweetness, otherwise I would hate the rice.  If rosewater would be a challenge for me, she did not guess.

I found a couple of recipes on the Internet. Some use Basmati rice some use pudding rice. I choose the last one.

Recipe for 4:
180 g pudding rice
800 ml water
1 pinch of salt
1/4 tsp yellow food colouring or aanato seed
1/4 tsp saffron
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger powder
100 g sugar
2 tbsp rosewater
25 g chopped pistachios
40 g chopped almonds
60 g butter

Put the rice into a bowl and cover it with water and soak it for 60 min.
Drain and get it into a pot with 800 ml of water, bring to a boil and reduce the heat to low and cook for 50 min. Stir a couple of times and add a bit more water if necessary.

In a casserole make the syrup by melting the butter and adding all ingredients, except 25 g of almonds.
Stir into the finished rice and fill into single portions and cool down completely.