Zarda, Sweet Dish made by Rice.
Zarda is a traditional sweet dish. The word Zarda comes from a Persian word Zard that means Yellow. Hence it is named because the food color added to it gives it yellow color. It is a traditional sweet usually served after the meal. It is made from boiling rice with yellow food color.
Firstly take the desired amount of rice say 2 cups of rice and boil them. Now take a pan add water and 2 cup sugar to it, heat the pan and make its syrup. Take another pan and put some ghee in it and heat it. Put cinnamon and clove in it, when it starts smelling add rice in it with the same volume of water and close the lid. When water starts to dry add the syrup with little amount of milk solid in it, followed by green and red Murabba (candied fruits). Add few drops of Kewra in it. Mix all the contents and then add yellow food color to it and leave it to cook. Serve it with dry fruits of your choice like coconut, pistachio, saffron and Murraba.
This dish is often served at weddings as sweet dish. In Punjab, instead of yellow food color different colors are also added. Dating back to Mughal era Shah Jahan loved this dish. Even Zarda had a variation with an addition of small fried meat pieces called Mutanjan.
