Grandmother’s Pulao

When my mother got married, Nana, my maternal grandmother, sent her off with some of her favorite recipes, including this one for pulao, written out in a clear Gujarati script. The instructions were precise as to ingredients but vague as to quantity. That was for the cook to figure out.

This is a classic gently flavored Parsi pulao—festive, extravagant, but actually rather easy to execute. All you have to do is allow enough time for the various steps. You can make the