Fesenjan

Ingredients

• Duck or chicken — in pieces1.5 kg
• Walnuts500 g
• Pomegranate molasses200 ml
• Onions2
• Sugar2 tbsp
• Turmeric1 tsp
• Cinnamon½ tsp
• Saffron1 pinch
• Vegetable oil60 ml
• Basmati rice — to serve500 g
• Pomegranate seeds — to serve100 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Toast the walnuts in a dry pan for five minutes, cool them and grind them almost to a paste.

   15 min

2. 2

   Fry the onion until golden, add the turmeric and the meat and brown it all over.

   18 min

3. 3

   Lift out the meat, add the walnut paste to the pot and pour in a litre of hot water.

   6 min

4. 4

   Cook the sauce an hour on a low heat, stirring every ten minutes; it darkens and starts releasing oil.

   65 min

5. 5

   Add the pomegranate molasses, cinnamon, sugar and saffron and return the meat to the pot.

   6 min

6. 6

   Stew an hour more, until the sauce turns dark brown and thick and oil shows at the edges.

   65 min

7. 7

   Taste and adjust the balance of sour and sweet, and serve with rice and pomegranate seeds.

   10 min

About the dish

The walnuts are ground almost to a paste and cooked two hours on a low heat. In that time their oil breaks out, the sauce darkens to nearly black, and that is the only sign of doneness.

Pomegranate molasses comes sour or sweet, and the whole balance depends on which. Taste and adjust with sugar at the end: Persian fesenjan runs from sharply sour to almost sweet by region.

Stir the sauce often. Walnut oil catches on the bottom easily, and a minute of inattention sends the burnt smell through the whole pot.

Worth knowing

• — The walnuts must be fresh. Rancid ones bring a bitterness that two hours of cooking only makes plainer.
• — The sauce has to darken. A pale fesenjan means the walnuts never released their oil and the flavour stays raw.
• — The meat goes in after the sauce has cooked an hour. Added at the start it falls into threads long before the sauce is ready.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

880 kcal

Protein

44 g

Fat

58 g

Carbs

52 g

More from Iran

• Ghormeh sabzi — Lamb stewed with a mountain of herbs, beans and dried lime. The herbs are fried until nearly black.
• Tahdig — Rice with a golden crust on the bottom of the pot, made from rice, potato or flatbread.
• Joojeh kabab — Chicken in a saffron marinade with onion juice and lemon, grilled over coals.