Shir Berenj: Persian rice pudding recipe and family tradition for babies and children

Weaning your first baby is strange. One minute, milk is doing a perfectly good job. The next, you are standing in the kitchen worrying about the size of a piece of broccoli and reading the back of packets you wouldn’t normally give a second glance.

There is nothing wrong with reaching for a jar or pouch when life needs it. I certainly wasn’t interested in turning feeding a baby into another test of maternal virtue. But I didn’t want Cyrus living on them, either. I wanted him to try the usual fruit and vegetables, but I also wanted him to eat versions of the food we ate as a family.

The NHS says jars and pouches can be convenient but shouldn’t be relied on as everyday food, encouraging babies to experience different tastes and textures as they move on to mashed, lumpy and finger foods. In our house, some of those tastes happened to be Persian.

I wasn’t trying to give Cyrus a lesson in Persian heritage at seven months old. I wanted the food his family ate to taste normal to him.

During a trip to London, Cyrus discovered jujeh kebab, Persian grilled chicken flavoured with saffron. It went down rather well. Then there was Shir Berenj, the Persian rice pudding I had watched my sister-in-law make for my nephew during a visit to Persia.

Cyrus, of course, wasn’t remotely interested in the reason I was attaching to any of this. He was seven months old and far more interested in the spoon. But for me, there was something lovely about seeing him eat food that belonged to his Persian family.

Shir Berenj literally means “milk rice” in Persian. At its heart is the combination of rice and milk, although there isn’t one version that every Persian household follows.

Encyclopaedia Iranica describes Shir Berenj alongside other traditional Iranian rice dishes and records a version made with milk, cardamom, sugar and rosewater. It also notes that Shir Berenj can be eaten with grape syrup. The basic idea is recognisable, but what appears in the bowl can change from one kitchen to another.

Family recipes vary, which makes more sense to me than insisting there is only one correct way to make a Persian rice pudding. Fereni is a relative of Shir Berenj, traditionally served to infants as well as adults who needed soft food. That doesn’t make Shir Berenj an historic Persian “baby food”. It just gives useful context to the long-standing place of soft rice dishes in Persian food culture.

I had watched my sister-in-law make it. There was a saucepan on the stove, the rice cooking slowly and the smell of rosewater in the kitchen. She knew what she was doing without constantly measuring or checking instructions. I didn’t think much of it at the time. It was just somebody making food for her child. But when I came home and started weaning Cyrus, I thought about it again and decided I wanted to make it for him, too.

At seven months, Cyrus obviously wasn’t going to eat Shir Berenj exactly as an adult might. Traditional versions can be sweetened, but I didn’t add sugar or honey. I kept his version simple, made the rice very soft and added just enough rosewater for the flavour to be there.

Cyrus had rice on his face, rice on his hands and rice on the floor. He was much more interested in taking control of the spoon than appreciating his Persian culinary inheritance.

This is the version I made when Cyrus was weaning. It isn’t intended to be a definitive traditional Shir Berenj recipe because I adapted it for him.

• ½ cup pudding rice
• Water for cooking
• A little pasteurised whole milk, breast milk or appropriately prepared first infant formula, depending on your baby’s age and usual feeding
• A very small amount of rosewater
• Mashed or soft fruit, optional

Babies do not need sugar added to their food, and honey should not be given before 12 months.

The NHS says whole pasteurised cow’s milk can be used in cooking or mixed with food from around six months, although it should not replace breast milk or first infant formula as a baby’s main drink before 12 months.

Parents should follow current NHS advice and speak to their health visitor or GP if they have questions about allergies, ingredients or appropriate textures.

One reason I like Shir Berenj is that it isn’t really “baby food”. I adapted it when Cyrus was small, but it is a family dish that can change as a child gets older. Fruit can be added, and older children can move towards versions with the toppings and flavours their own family prefers.

Eventually, there is no need to make a special baby version at all. They can eat what everyone else is eating. That was always what I wanted with Cyrus. I didn’t want Persian food to be something separate that appeared only for Nowruz or when we were visiting family. It was part of his normal life.

Persian cuisine has several rice-based puddings and desserts, so it is easy to confuse them if you haven’t grown up eating them.

Shir Berenj is based on whole rice and milk. Rosewater and cardamom feature in some versions, and it can be served with something sweet alongside. The recipe varies, which is the point with food that has spent generations being cooked in family kitchens.

Fereni is related but has a different texture and preparation. It is similar to Shir Berenj but sweeter.

Sholeh Zard is different again. Rather than being a milk-based pudding, it is the golden Persian rice dessert associated with saffron, sweetness and rosewater.

For Cyrus, however, Shir Berenj was something warm that arrived on a spoon.

Looking back, I was a new mum trying to work out what to feed a seven-month-old, but I did want Persian food to taste normal to him.

As he grows up, there will be Nowruz, Persian music, family visits, words he hears his dad use and dishes that appear on our table without anyone needing to explain why they are there. Shir Berenj is just one of them. That is what I was trying to achieve when I chose our family food over relying on jars and pouches. Not a perfect weaning regime, or another reason for mums to judge one another.

Cyrus won’t remember eating that first bowl. I do. But one day he’ll smell rosewater somewhere and recognise it before he can quite work out why.

Occasional stories, experiments, discoveries and questions from Saffron & Cyrus.