Kalam Polo – Persian Cabbage Rice

Kalam Polo is a tasty Persian rice dish. Like Loobia Polo the rice is steamed in a sauce that’s packed with flavour, allowing it to soak up all the goodness.

I used beef in this recipe but you could also use lamb, a mix of beef and lamb, or vegan “mince meat”. I hadn’t made this dish in ages and I really regret that! I won’t let much time pass until I make it again, because it’s such a good Persian comfort food!

Ingredients for Kalam Polo (serving 4)

3 cups / 525g basmati rice

0.55 lbs / 250g ground/mince beef

1 cup water + 7 cups water for parboiling rice

1 onion

cloves garlic

0.9 lbs / 400g white cabbage (about half a cabbage head)

1/8 cup vegetable oil

5 tbsp ghee

2 tbsp butter

3 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp black pepper

Salt to taste + 2 tsp for parboiling rice

Time

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 1 h

Steam: 1 h

Total: 2 h 15 min

Method

Chop the veg

Slice the onion and finely chop the garlic. If you’re using half a cabbage head, halve it again into quarters. Them finely slice it, as if you were making coleslaw.

Cook the sauce for your Kalam Polo

Fry the onions in the vegetable oil over medium heat. After 5 minutes you can add the garlic and let both fry gently together for another 5 minutes.

Add the butter to the pan. Once it’s melted, add the ground/minced beef to it. Let the beef fry and change colour for about 5 minutes, then add the turmeric, black pepper and to the pan and combine everything.

In another pan melt 3 tbsp ghee over medium temperature. Add the cabbage to the pan and put the lid on. Remove the lid after 5 minutes. Let the water evaporate and allow the cabbage to fry a little.

After about 15 minutes transfer the meat and onions to the pan with the cabbage and add 1 cup of freshly boiled water. Combine everything and let the ingredients simmer together for 5 minutes.

Parboil the rice

Bring 7 cups of water to boil in a large pan. Let 2 tsp salt dissolve in it. Parboil the rice so that it’s soft on the outside but uncooked in the centre (al dente so to speak). This can take anything from 3 to 7 minutes. I usually use Tilda Basmati rice and parboiling it 3 minutes is long enough to get it to that stage.

Drain the rice in a strainer and rinse it with cool water to interrupt the cooking process and wash off any excess salt. Let any water drain away.

Layer the Kalam Polo

Add 2 tbsp of melted ghee to the pan you want to steam the rice in. Now make several layers of sauce and rice. The rice sauce layers should have a heap or pyramid shape in the end. This helps the moisture escape and allows the rice to steam evenly.

Add a few tbsp of the cabbage beef mixture to the bottom of the pan until it’s just covered. Then add a few spoons of rice on top of it. Sprinkle with cinnamon powder. Now add another layer of sauce, then rice, then cinnamon, and so on until all the ingredients are used. Finish with a layer of sauce.

Sprinkle the rice “pyramid” with 2 tbsp freshly boiled water. Poke 5 holes into the rice, all the way to the bottom of the pan. This will further help the moisture evaporate. Cover the lid with a clean kitchen towel and press it firmly on the pan. Let the Kalam Polo steam over low heat for one hour.

Serve your delicious Kalam Polo

To make sure the Kalam Polo is ready, you can carefully touch the outside of the pan with the tip of a wet kitchen towel. If it makes a sound like “tshhh”, it means any moisture is gone and your Kalam Polo is ready.

In order to get the tahdig (the crispy bits in the bottom of the pan) out easily, you can submerge the pan into a sink filled with a little cool water.

Serve your delicious Kalam Polo with Salad Shirazi, torshi (pickles), yoghurt or any sides you like. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! If you have any questions please let me know in the comments, I’m always happy to help. 

I’d love to see your Kalam Polo! Feel free to tag me with @igotitfrommymaman on Facebook or Insta so I can take a look and give you a thumbs up!

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Looking for more recipes? Here are my other Persian classics!

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