Saffron Rice Pudding (Zarda)

From "The Aleppo Cookbook" by Marlene Matar

This is an old, festive dessert that was common in the Ottoman Topkapi palace in the sixteenth century. It was served at weddings, birth celebrations, and during the first ten days of Muharram (the first month of the Islamic calendar and one of the four sacred months of the year in which any fighting is prohibited). The dessert is currently considered a…