15 Minute Fesenjan, A Reader Request

Fesenjan is a beloved Iranian pomegranate-walnut stew. It can be made with chicken, duck, or without meat. What you see above is a version made with mushrooms and chickpeas, a departure from the classic recipe. Note my greenery "garnish" isn't really edible 😉 This is my fast, 15 minute version of khorest fesenjan.

Yes, you read right. A 15-minute version of beloved Persian koresht fesenjan.

What??????

For the uninitiated, it’s a stew of ground walnuts, pomegrante molasses, and, often, chicken. It has a sweet and sour flavor that might sound weird on paper, but tastes oh-so-good on the palate. It also has a bit of a reputation: a rep as something that takes a good while to cook.

We chatted about this recipe on here before:

• The classic, stovetop slow cooking version is here.

• A vegan version is here.

But today’s offering is a quickie take on the slow-cooking classic. Over the weekend, a reader, Almaz, and I were chatting on Facebook. She loves the blog and had such kind words of encouragement for me. I was really touched. So I asked her if there was anything in particular she’d like me to post about. She jokingly (I think), said “15 minute fesenjan.” I immediately thought about a slow cooker version, that potentially could have only 15 minutes of hands on time.

Then today, while tinkering around in the kitchen, I realized a truly fast fesenjan, made in 15 minutes from start to finish, IS doable. If you have the following, already ready:

• Pomegranate PASTE or MOLASSES (pre-thickened, you see!)
• Ground walnuts.
• Pre-cooked chicken (if using).
• Pre-cooked rice (if serving over rice). Or you could use quick cooking rice. (Not as tasty as homemade, but just sayin’)

So here we go. Don’t blink, guys, or else this recipe will be over before you know it:

15-Minute Khoresht Fesenjan (Pomegranate Walnut Stew)

Time: 15 minutes

Yield: Approximately 4-6 servings. ( The nuts make this a very rich dish.)

Ingredients

• Neutral cooking fat of choice (butter, grapeseed oil, etc)
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1 cup pre-ground walnuts
• 1 Tablespoon sumac
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 cup pomegranate molasses or pomegranate paste (can find on Amazon)
• 10 ounces of mushrooms (optional)
• 1 cup of chicken broth, vegetable broth, or water
• 1 14-16 ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed (optional)
• 1 cup of pre-cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (such as leftover roasted chicken)
• Honey, sugar, or agave nectar to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Over a low heat, heat oil or butter in a Dutch oven.

2. As fat warms, dice onion.  Add it to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring periodically. (Chopping the onion very small will help it cook through faster).

3. As the onion cooks, slice mushrooms (if using) and drain and rinse chickpeas (if using).

4. Lower the heat, and add walnuts to the onions. Toast walnuts lightly, turning often, for 30-60 seconds, or until you smell a hint of fragrance. Immediately add in spices, and cook for about 30 seconds more. Turn heat off.

5. Add in the pomegranate molasses/paste, stock or water. Stir well, then add in any of the following that you’re using: chicken, mushrooms, chickpeas. Put the heat back on, then increase heat to high until stew boils. Drop the heat down to low.

6. Cook for 5 minutes more, until mushrooms are cooked through and chicken, if using, is warmed through. (You can cook this dish longer if you wish, up to half an hour, but the shorter cooking time works if you’re in a hurry).

7. Adjust seasonings to your taste. If you want it sweeter, add in sweetener of choice, stir, taste. Repeat until you’ve reached your idea sweet-sour ratio.  Serve over rice of choice and enjoy.

That’s IT!

Enjoy it over rice of your choice.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo courtesy of Stock.xchng (Cuz I'm feelin' too lazy to snap my own pic of my sprouts from the farmer's market).

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope anyone who’s celebrating is having a most excellent time. And if not, at least excellent food 😉

What am I grateful for this year? For starters, for taking the year off from being Head Biyatch in Charge in the Kitchen. That’s right, I’m putting up my mitts and saving the cute Anthropologie apron for some other holiday, because I’m officially not cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year. I think the technical term for how I feel about this is: “Wooo hooo!”

To put this into context, this is a major departure for me. I’ve been in charge of Thanksgiving for several years now. Don’t get me wrong; typically, I loved every second of it. Sure, there were stressful moments. (Sourcing organic, free range turkeys can be a bit of a hunt, and prepping and cooking everything takes some planning and coordination).  Yet overall, I was totally into it. Fast forward to this year. For many reasons, both big and small, I strongly felt that I needed a rest from Hostess With the Mostess duties. When I expressed this sentiment to my friend Khat, she promptly invited me to celebrate the holiday with her family in Long Island. Score!

Khat, left, and me, right, at her brother's wedding, April 2010.

Yes, this is the same sweet friend who invites me to dinner on random nights, and whose brother’s traditional Afghan wedding I attended earlier this year.

Speaking of tradition, there will be traditional Thanksgiving foods, including a turkey. But there will also be delicacies prepared in the Afghan manner, such as leg of lamb, many rice dishes, and elaborate desserts. I can’t freakin’ wait! I’m contributing a dish of Brussels Sprouts with pomegranate molasses, vanilla almond butter, and a garnish of pomegranate seeds. It’s based on this Bobby Flay recipe. I think it will be a nice little pop of green and red to add to the table, and it will meld well with the other flavors.

So I’m off for a pre-dinner power walk, then ramping up to roll out.

Everyone have a great holiday. I’ll leave you with a (partial) list of some of the many people, places, and things I’m extremely thankful for:

• My health
• Family and friends (a truly amazing assortment of people are in my life)
• My readers/bloggies/Twitter friends (you guys rock and are just so fun, talented, and amazing)
• My Yoga students (the best, seriously!)
• My Yoga teachers, past and present
• Being an omnivore with no serious food allergies
• Books, magazines, etc
• Hot chocolate (Actually, chocolate of ANY kind)
• My cat (he’s on my lap now. What a sweet and funny boy he is)
• Yoga
• Nature
• Freedom
• Having a roof over my head
• Thanksgiving (one of my fave holidays; it’s not religious; anyone can “play”)
• Food, especially veggies
• Green smoothies
• My naturopathic/Ayurvedic doctor (a Godsend!)
• That I got to go to the U.S. Open (tennis) again this year
• Music
• That both of the Yoga retreats I hosted this year went well
• That I got to teach a class at Lululemon this year
• Some fun travel this year to places I’d never been
• Inner peace and serenity, when I find it. It’s always there. We just have to be open to tapping into it.

Much light, peace, and happiness to you all this Thanksgiving,
Bria

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Stuffed Baby Eggplants with Sour Cherry Pomegranate Sauce

Baby eggplants stuffed with lean ground chicken, pine nuts, scallions, and walnuts. Topped with a warm sour-cherry pomegranate sauce.

Maybe I”m too easily amused, but a trip to the farmer’s market is one of the highlights of my week. I’m quite obsessed with farmer’s markets, really. To the point that I’ll always try to hit up the local markets when I travel. It’s a cool way to get a feel for a city or town. The vibe, the people, the types of food that grow there. It’s informative, fresh, and chill.

Mini eggplants at my neighborhood farmer's market. A steal at $1.50 per pound.

Right now, eggplant is in season in my corner of the world. In particular, those precious baby aubergines, with hues ranging from lavender to deep purple. They were just begging me to buy them and stuff them silly.

Full disclosure moment: Today’s recipe is a total riff on something Joumana of Taste of Beirut did recently.  Her Eggplant in Walnut and Pomegranate sauce was too tempting to pass up. The first time around, I honored her recipe and it was fabulous. Then I decided to experiment and make a meat-stuffed eggplant with a sour cherry pomegranate sauce.

Fairytale eggplant, to the left. Yes, they're really called that. These petite beauties are delicious stuffed.

The eggplants are left unpeeled, then baked, and finally stuffed with a mixture of ground chicken, ground walnuts, scallions, and pine nuts. Then they’re sauced with a simple mixture of sour cherry preserves (or juice), pomegranate paste, and chili pepper. It’s a meal that’s satisfying without being heavy, and it’s pretty darn good for you too.

So thank you, Joumana and to my local farmers market for providing the inspiration for today’s dish.

So delicious, so healthy!

Stuffed Baby Eggplant with Sour Cherry Pomegranate Sauce

If you can’t find small eggplants, you can use bigger eggplants instead. Adjust cooking time accordingly. Sour (tart) cherry or pomegranate juices/jams can be used interchangeably for the sauce. Good to know in case you don’t have easy access to one or the other.

Ingredients:

• 24 baby eggplants
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2/3 pound of ground chicken (can use turkey, lamb, beef if you prefer)
• 1 Tablespoon Arabic spice blend
• 1 Tablespoon sage
• 2 Tablespoons za’atar (optional)
• 1/2 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or even grated
• 1/2 cup ground walnuts (optional)
• 1/4 cup of pine nuts
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Sour Cherry Pomegranate Sauce

• 2 Tablespoons sour cherry preserves OR 1/2 cup tart cherry juice
• 2/3 cup pomegranate juice
• 1/2 dried chili pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• pinch turmeric

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425. As oven preheats, wash and pat dry baby eggplants. Line your baking pans or dishes with foil. Place baby eggplants on baking sheet or dish. Do not overcrowd. Bake for 30 minutes on the middle oven rack, testing for doneness at 25 minutes.

2. As eggplants roast, make filling. Warm olive oil in a skillet. Once it’s shimmery, add chicken, breaking up the ground chicken as you move it around the pan. When chicken is approximately half cooked (you’ll be able to tell parts of it are still raw), add in spices, including za’atar, if using,  plus scallions and garlic. Cook chicken until done. Next, add in scallions, pine nuts, ground walnuts, and stir. Add in tomato paste and splash of water if mixture is getting dry. Stir again, taste, and adjust seasoning to taste. Cook another minute or two more, then turn off heat.

3. Remove eggplants from the oven. With a fork or knife, test for doneness (fork or knife should slide easily through the eggplants). Place eggplants in a safe place and allow to cool.

4. As the eggplants cool, make the sour cherry pomegranate sauce. Simply mix all of the ingredients together, and cook over a LOW heat for 5-10 minutes, until desired consistency is reached. (If you want the sauce syrupy, feel free to cook for more than 10 minutes).

5. Now split each baby eggplant down the middle. Stuff each with a spoonful of the chicken mixture. If you have leftover scallions, use them for garnish. Or garnish with fresh chopped parsley. Spoon sauce over eggplants, plate, and enjoy!

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Vegetarian Khoresht Fesenjan: Persian Pomegranate Walnut Stew

Pomegranate is a base flavor for today's Persian stew, Fesenjan. It gives the stew depth and a bit of a sweet and sour taste. Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/

The lively, warm, and rich flavors of pomegranate and walnuts seemed like a perfect way to send winter packing. Koresht fesenjan combines those flavors and more. It’s actually a dish I discovered as an adult. I read about it in a book, “Guests of the Sheik,” did some research, and eventually came up with a version of it that’s pretty traditional, but with a couple of my personal tweaks. It’s become a favorite!

In a stroke of dumb stroke of luck: I recently had everything on hand to make this koresht fesenjan except for the meat (typically chicken or duck is used.) Grinding the walnuts is usually the most tedious part of this recipe for me, so I was thrilled that I had some pre-ground walnuts on hand. I wasn’t in the mood to rush out and buy meat, and anyways, I’m always down with a good vegetarian meal. I remembered butternut squash being part of the recipe in a version of this dish byNajmieh Batmanglij.

Madame Najmieh? She’s kind of the Queen of Persian Cooking, by the way. She literally wrote the book on it. Several, actually. So I figure that if butternut squash is good enough for her, it’s good enough for me! And this would be my chance to finally explore a vegan version of this lovely dish, something I’d been meaning to do.

Earthy walnuts give this stew a filling and meaty quality, even though the recipe is meatless. Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/

So in the butternut squash went, along with some leftover sliced mushrooms I had on hand from another night’s salad. (Yes, the mushrooms were my addition, and I admit I felt nervous as I tossed them in. No need. The stew turned out great and the mushrooms absorbed the other flavors beautifully).

This recipe calls for pomegranate syrup or juice. Since pomegranate juice is so popular now and pretty easy to find in supermarkets, you can use that instead of pomegranate syrup. However, pomegranate syrup/molasses is available in some regular grocery stores, and also in Middle Eastern/Mediterranean stores. Another thing: A lot of oil will come to the top of the dish. This is normal and nothing to worry about; it is the oil from the walnuts. And walnut oil is good fat. Anti-inflammatory and great for the heart and the skin, as a matter of fact.

Khoresht Fesenjan: Persian Pomegranate Walnut Stew

2 tablespoons olive oil or neutral oil of choice

2 medium onions, finely chopped

1/2 pound walnuts, finely ground (shells removed)

1 pound of butternut squash, peeled and cut into large chunks

8-10 ounces of sliced mushrooms (optional)

4 cups pomegranate juice or 1/2 cup pomegranate syrup/molasses diluted in 2 cups of water

1/4 teaspoon saffron, dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water

Salt, to taste
Honey, agave, or sugar

Optional Spices: Cardamom pod  OR 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder and/or a pinch of ground allspice

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large pan Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 10-15 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook 5 minutes more. Remove onions and mushrooms.

2.  Place the ground walnuts in the remaining oil in the frying pan over low heat. Cook and stir 5 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. If using optional spices, add now and allow to cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant.

3.  Return the onion to the frying pan with the walnuts. Stir in the pomegranate juice or diluted pomegranate syrup. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning to taste. If stew tastes too sour, add a little honey or sugar.

4.  Serve over basmati rice. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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Muhamarra Part 2–Cooked (Roasty and Toasty)

The weather is cooling down where I live, and when this happens, I generally prefer that my food have a nice roasty and toasty flavor. Which makes now the perfect time to post the other version of muhamarra dip–the much-loved red bell pepper, walnut, and pomegranate dip popular throughout many countries of the Middle East.

In a previous post we explored the taste of Raw Muhammara by making the dip with all raw ingredients–bell peppers, garlic, walnuts, and so on. The raw version looks something like this:

Raw Muhammara dip has a lighter color than the cooked version of the dip. Both are beautiful!

For today’s version, you can roast your own bell peppers (not the best idea if you have, as I do, a tendency to walk away from the stove in an effort to multi-task). Or you can grab some jarred roasted bell peppers. Just make sure to rinse them well before using, and leave any brand that includes corn syrup in its ingredient list on the shelf. Here’s the jar I currently have on hand:

If roasting bell peppers by hand isn't your thing, pick up a jar at the store. Make sure to rinse well before using.

I’ve also included an optional ingredient that can really boost the smokey flavor of the dip. Personally, I like a smokey flavor in this dip. It reminds me of evenings in front of the fireplace when I was growing up. The ingredient? Liquid smoke. It’s pretty cool. Or should I say, warm? The brand I prefer is, and I quote

all-natural. . .Vegan, contains no animal byproducts, and is gluten free.

How do they make it?

Colgin Liquid Smoke is not a chemical or synthetic flavor – but genuine wood smoke “liquefied.” The wood is placed in large retorts where intense heat is applied, causing the wood to smolder (not burn).

I swear this isn’t a shameless product endorsement. The folks at Colgin haven’t greased my palm for mentioning their product. Here’s what it looks like.

Liquid smoke. All natural, believe it or not! A little of this goes a long way, so one bottle will last quite awhile.

For the record, there are many other great brands of liquid smoke on store shelves. It varies from region to region. Look on the aisle of your local store where spices and extracts are sold.

Now for the recipe.

Muhamarra Dip–Lightly Cooked Version

3-4 Large pre-roasted bell peppers (from a jar), rinsed thoroughly

11/2 Cups walnuts pieces or halves. Unsalted is best.

2-3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, or paste or molasses

2-3 garlic cloves

1 Tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

1/2 Teaspoon of ground cumin

Pinch of salt (to taste)

Drizzle of olive oil (a Tablespoon or two)

Dash of Liquid Smoke (optional)

Instructions:

Lightly toast the nuts and the whole garlic cloves on the stovetop in a skillet over medium low. Turn the nuts and garlic frequently so they don’t burn on one side. When their color deepens and the nutty fragrance begins to come through, they’re ready. Remove them from heat immediately.

Or, alternatively:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

Spread walnuts and the garlic cloves  in a single layer on a baking sheet, and toast until lightly browned and fragrant. (The scent will tell you when they’re ready). To be on the safe side and avoid burning, you can set a timer for 5 minutes and check them, turning them at this time.

Optional step for an extra smokey flavor–mix in the ground cumin and toast for 30 seconds before removing the skillet from the heat or the pan from the oven.

Add all ingredients to a blender, and blend until smooth and silky. Adjust seasoning, lemon, and olive oil to taste.  Re-blend if needed. That’s it!

The dip will thicken if refrigerated. Serve with pita bread and/or raw or roasted veggies.

NOTE: You might be tempted to add more liquid to get the ingredients to meld and blend. If you choose to do so, just go very slowly. You can always add more liquid, but it’s hard to get the dip to thicken up if it’s become too watery. Hey now–Don’t toss it if you find it too watery. Give it a chance to thicken up in the fridge. Or use it as a sauce, sandwich spread, and/or salad dressing.

Enjoy!

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