Food

Norinj Palaw (Rice with Candied Orange Peel and Lamb)

Dinner · Lamb · Middle Eastern · Rice

Norinj Palaw (Rice with Candied Orange Peel and Lamb)
Prep 2 hr 30 min
Cook 2 hr
Serves 8–10
Level Hard

The Afghan orange-peel palaw: lamb and rice steamed together under a cloth, crowned with rice cooked in saffron syrup, strips of candied bitter-orange peel and pistachios.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Rice section’s regional pages and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups long-grain basmati rice, preferably aged
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3 lb bone-in lamb shanks, in 1½-inch pieces
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 3 large or 5 small Seville or other sour oranges
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ¼ gram saffron, ground (⅛ teaspoon)
  • 1½ teaspoons ground cardamom, divided
  • ½ cup shelled pistachios, toasted and chopped
  • Salt

Directions

Key ingredients

Olive Oil

  1. Soak the washed rice about 2 hours.
  2. Lamb. Brown the lamb in the oil, add the onion, half-cover with water, and simmer covered 1–1½ hours.
  3. Peel. Pare the orange peel into thin strips and boil it three times, 15 minutes each, in fresh water, to remove the bitterness.
  4. Syrup. Make a syrup with the sugar, saffron, ½ teaspoon of the cardamom and ¼ cup water, about 10 minutes.
  5. Parboil. Boil the drained rice like pasta 7–10 minutes and drain. Set aside 1 cup.
  6. Combine. Toss the rest with 2 teaspoons salt, the remaining 1 teaspoon cardamom, and the lamb with its liquid. Mound it in the pot and poke holes in it.
  7. Steam with a cloth under the lid, 20–30 minutes on the lowest heat.
  8. Topping. Separately cook the reserved rice with ¼ cup of the syrup until absorbed.
  9. Serve. Mound the lamb rice, top with the syrup rice, the candied peels and the pistachios.

Notes

Source Adapted from Ligaya Mishan, “Norinj Pilau (Rice With Candied Orange Peel, Saffron and Lamb),” NYT Cooking (2023). Encyclopaedia Iranica calls orange-peel narenj palaw “one of the tastiest” of the Afghan palaws.

Method This shows the Afghan double cooking — rice boiled, drained, then steamed with the stock — and the cloth under the lid. Sour (Seville) oranges match Nancy Hatch Dupree’s note that “the fresh juice of sour oranges heightens the flavor of pelaw.”

The Rice section’s Persia and Central Asia page (/rice/persia-and-central-asia/) covers the history and technique behind this dish.

The photo The photograph shows an Afghan kabuli palaw topped with carrot and raisins, not this orange-peel palaw; no open-licence photograph of norinj palaw was found.