Name: Grandmother’s Pulao (Nana Nu Pulao)
Yield: Serves 8 to 12, with leftovers.
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 4 (2-inch-long) sticks cinnamon or cassia; 2 ½ pounds lean lamb or kid shoulder or shank, boned, carefully trimmed, and cut into roughly 2-inch chunks; 3 boiled unpeeled waxy potatoes (such as Yukon Gold), cut into 1-inch cubes; ½ cup shelled peas, parboiled (optional); 3 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil; 12 whole cloves; 2 teaspoons (or more) salt; ½ to 1 cup slivered almonds; 2 (2-inch-long) sticks cinnamon or cassia; 1 tablespoon Ginger-Garlic Paste; 4 teaspoons (about) salt; 2 to 4 sheets edible silver leaf (optional); 1 tablespoon ghee; 1 large onion, thinly sliced; 5 cardamom pods; 3 to 4 dried red chiles; ½ cup (about) ghee or clarified butter; 10 cardamom pods; 1 teaspoon saffron threads; 6 cups finest basmati rice; 1 cup whole-milk yogurt; About ¼ cup lemon or lime juice, or ⅓ cup warm milk; ½ cup golden raisins; 6 whole cloves; 1 to 2 cups vegetable oil, for deep-frying; 2 or 3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered (optional); 2 large onions, thinly sliced; 1 quart (about) water

Preparation info

Serves
8 to 12
, with leftovers.

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

My Bombay Kitchen

By Niloufer Ichaporia King

Published 2007

About

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