This rich Persian stew marries chicken with walnuts and pomegranate. It's one of those dishes I've been meaning to try making vegetarian, ever since I bought a bottle of pomegranate molasses on a whim last year. I found a bunch of recipes online and they differed quite a bit. In lieu of a Persian auntie to educate me, I cobbled this together:
1 cup walnuts
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
2 T butter
about 2/3 cup pomegranate molasses
half cup water or stock
about a pound of chicken breasts
1 teaspoon salt
half teaspoon pepper
quarter teaspoon turmeric
dash each of nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom
Pulverize the walnuts and toast them. I toasted them in an unoiled pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 90 seconds. They smelled wonderful. Transfer the nuts to a plate.
Melt some butter in the pan and saute the onions for about 2 minutes. Add garlic and saute another couple minutes.
Add chicken to the pan and drizzle with the pomegranate molasses. Then cover with the spices and walnuts, add stock to the pan, and cover. Let simmer 20 minutes, then flip over the chicken and give it another 20 minutes.
When the chicken is tender, remove from the pan and cut into bite size pieces. Return it to the pan, give it a good stir, and you're done.
Almost every fesenjan recipe I found included 2 or 3 tablespoons of sugar to balance the pomegranate's tartness. I can't imagine how sweet those turn out - the pomegranate molasses was much sweeter than I expected. The stew was delicious, but I think I'll save the recipe for special occasions. It's a bit rich to eat regularly.
No comments:
Post a Comment