Sabzi Polow Mahi (Herb Rice with Fish)

Name: Sabzi Polow Mahi (Herb Rice with Fish)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 3
Cuisine: Persian
Ingredients: 2 Cups long grain rice (Basmati rice); 3 Pieces Tilapia fish fillet, or a fish of your choice; ¼ Cups chopped dill, fresh or dried; ¼ Cups chopped chives or scallions; ¼ Cups chopped parsley; ¼ Cups chopped coriander (cilantro); ½ Cups flour; 1 Teaspoon turmeric; ½ Teaspoons black pepper; salt; 1 Tablespoon fish spice; ½ Teaspoons ground Rumi Spice saffron dissolved into 4 tablespoons hot water; 3 Tablespoons lemon juice; 2 Tablespoons butter; vegetable oil

Estimated read time: 1 minutes

Jump To Recipe

Sabzi Polow Mahi (Herb Rice with Fish)

Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users

Cuisine

Persian

Servings

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Image of Sabzi Polow Mahi (Herb Rice with Fish)

Ingredients

2 Cups long grain rice (Basmati rice)
3 Pieces Tilapia fish fillet, or a fish of your choice
¼ Cups chopped dill, fresh or dried
¼ Cups chopped chives or scallions
¼ Cups chopped parsley
¼ Cups chopped coriander (cilantro)
½ Cups flour
1 Teaspoon turmeric
½ Teaspoons black pepper
salt
1 Tablespoon fish spice
½ Teaspoons ground Rumi Spice saffron dissolved into 4 tablespoons hot water
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons butter
vegetable oil

View Cart (0) Checkout

Directions

For the herbed rice:

Wash the rice with cool water a few times. Soak in water, add 1 tablespoons salt and set aside for couple of hours. The longer you soak the rice it will be fluffier when cooked.
In a large non-stick pot, bring 5 cups of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Drain the rice and pour into boiling water. Add 1 tablespoon salt. Bring water back to a boil. After 5-7 minutes test to see if the rice is ready. Rice should be hard in the center and soft on the outside. Also another way to see if it's ready to drain is that you will see the rice gains starting to come to the surface of the water.
Drain the rice using a colander and rinse with cool water. Add the chopped herbs to the rice and mix . Be careful to not break the rice grains.
Return the pot and heat 3 tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium heat. Place the rice and herb mixture in the pot in a pyramid shape. Add butter to the top, make 3 holes in the rice with the bottom of a spoon to release the steam. Lower the heat, cover the lid and steam the rice for 45-50 minutes on low heat.

For the fish:

Meanwhile, mix the flour with turmeric, fish spice, black pepper, garlic powder, and 1 tablespoon salt. Coat each fillet with this mixture finely and set aside. Click on the image to enlarge.
Heat 3-4 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. place fish fillets in the pan and fry both sides until golden and crispy.
Mix the saffron water with lemon juice and add to the fillets. Reduce heat, cover the lid and let it cook for some more minutes until fillets absorb the saffron and lemon juice.
When the rice is done, using a spatula gently serve the rice onto a platter and place the fish fillets beside it. You can save a bit of saffron water from step 9 and mix with some rice for garnish and decoration.