What is Shirin Polo?

Shirin polo, literally 'sweet rice,' is the celebration rice of Persian cooking, also called morasa polo — jeweled rice — because of how it looks when it lands on the table. Steamed basmati is layered with strips of candied orange peel, slivered almonds and pistachios, barberries, and sometimes carrots cooked down in sugar and saffron, then finished with a golden crust of tahdig at the bottom. The garnishes are arranged on top in stripes or a starburst so that every color shows, and the rice is usually served alongside saffron chicken. It is sweet in the way a good chutney is sweet: a foil for savory food, not a dessert.

The dish belongs to weddings above all. It's the rice at the aghd dinner and the reception, chosen because the sweetness is meant to wish sweetness onto the marriage, the same logic that puts sugar cones over the couple's heads and honey on their fingers. It also shows up at Nowruz and at big Fridays when a family wants to signal that this is not an ordinary lunch. Making it well is fiddly: the orange peel has to be boiled several times to lose its bitterness, the nuts go on at the last second so they don't go soft, and the tahdig has to release from the pot intact in front of the guests. Some families make it with chicken folded into the rice itself; others keep the meat separate and pile the rice into a dome, decorate the outside, and carry it in like a cake. Either way, the cook stands nearby while it's uncovered, waiting for the reaction, and there is always a reaction.