It’s Christmas and that means pomegranate season. If you’ve never had one - I suggest looking into it.
So the story behind this one was that my dear friend and awesome roomie J (he gets to be in lots of my stories because he kinda inadvertently wound up being the test subject for almost anything I tried.) moved to Glasgow we had a long couple of days of Ikea furniture and cheap Asda appliances and my helping him register (and going to settle up my own scholarship stuff and my thesis adviser meetings for a few days. By the end of it it I didn’t want to cook, nor did we want any more pizza or chicken or Indian or Chinese. and we decided what the hell, I’ve never had Persian food, let’s do that.
I later found out that the receptionist’s husband at my work-study was Persian (I kinda spent the year wondering - she was CLEARLY Scottish and white and Talakoob is clearly not a white British surname...never seemed like a good time to bring it up but found out when I asked J to pick some up one time as by that time we had a reputation with the place and that was one of our favourites and it’s from him that I got the cookbook because I said above story, and she said he had a cook book and was a fantastic cook in his own right. This was our favourite thing so I tried to make it to very good success. It’s definitely in the final cut for ‘recipes I want to have in my cook book’.
If you want some more stuff to do with Pomegranate I have a really good cheese ball and a vodka martini if either of those things strike your fancy. I ended up doing the cocktail
Ingredients
1 large yellow onion, diced
3-4 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup pomegranate molasses (I usually just use a combo of pomegranate juice and arils but molasses is very simple to make -you can boil down 3 cups of pomegranate juice with 1/2 cup white sugar and a tablespoon of lemon juice - it’s good on poultry or root veg.
1.5 cups raw cashews (some recipes use walnuts but I really love cashews
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1.5-inch cubes*
2 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp cinnamon,
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1.5 cups Jasmine rice
optional (but lovely) 1 pinch saffron
Directions:
1. To get this out of the way - If using the saffron, place into the rice and cover to infuse. Saffron is a fairly expensive herb and it’s not necessary and the dish won’t suffer. If you enjoy cooking I certainly recommend trying it.
2. Toast your cashews (or walnuts) in a dry pan over medium high heat There should be some colour. Set aside
3. salt and pepper your chicken and saute in olive oil until coloured on the outside. Reduce heat and add the pomegranate, chicken stock, honey, nutmeg, cinnamon and turmeric. Boil to reduce then stir in the cashews
4 serve over rice or noodles.
And what the hey: Said I have a good cocktail recipe - here’s your bonus
1 oz shot pomegranate juice
1 1/2 oz shot grapefruit juice
1 oz shot simple syrup
1 1/2 oz shot vodka
1/2 oz shot lime juice
ice
1. combine in a cocktail shaker and serve in a Martini glass with a twist of orange
So, my flatmate and I moved in, checked in with the Registration desk, made sure our tuition was paid and were left alone by my godparents. After a day of putting together Ikea furniture and making closet space and standing in registration lines and celebrating my birthday (My birthday is in the first few days of September - the first day of school was OFTEN my birthday) - we kinda huffed and had a conversation that went to the tune of:
I kinda don’t want to make anything can we order in?s
I really don’t want pizza we did that monday.
And Indian on Tuesday and Chinese twice...er...plus I have a thesis adviser meeting two days from now I’d rather not pub.
So online we went and “Hey have you ever had Iranian food?”
“Nope”
“Wanna try? Menu looks shellfish free.”
And lo we did. And we enjoyed it. And we kept trying it. Skip ahead to a few years down the road and I started working at the Doctor’s office one of my coworkers had the surname Takakoob and I’m looking at her and thinking - well, okay that sure doesn’t sound like a white, Scottish surname but given my grandmother looks like someone turned the negative filter on me or as she’s the older one vice versa I just assumed eh sometimes genetic work out that way..Turned out the Talakoob was that she took her husband’s surname who is Persian and when I mentioned liking the food, she brought in her Husband’s cook book and I learned.
The best I can describe this it’s it’s somewhere along the lines of a curry but not. It’s also the thing that after we tried stuff it became my menu staple.
1 large yellow onion, diced (I like a sweeter onion - a vidalia perhaps)
3-4 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup pomegranate molasses (or 1 8-oz. bottle pomegranate juice)
1.5 cups walnut halves
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1.5-inch cubes*
2 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 tsp sea salt
pinch each cinnamon, nutmeg and black pepper
For rice - my natural inclination is to serve 1/2 cup of rice per person
1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
a pinch of saffron
1 tsp tumeric
In the morning, add the cumin seeds turmeric and saffron to the rice. cover it and leave all day - you will cook the rice as normal.
Direction:
1. You can make pomegranate molasses by reducing pomegranate juice. It keeps well I suggest using it - it really works with root veggies like carrots or parsnips or even some stuff like the dreaded sprouts.
2. Toast walnuts in a shallow pan over medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant. Once cooled, transfer to a food processor or blender and blend into a fine crumb (I like to not get it to powder - allow for some texture - or don’t if that bugs you). Set aside.
3. Bring the same amout of water to rice to a boil (eg if you are making 2 cups of rice, that’s two cups of water) Add infused rice (cumin and all) and reduce to a simmer. Keep an eye on this so as to ensure it does not scorch. let the water evaporate fully then remove from heat source.
4. Heat a large pot over medium heat. Once hot add 1 Tbsp olive oil and onions. Cook until soft, stirring occasionally.
5. Add salt and pepper to chicken. In a separate pan over medium heat, cook the chicken in a bit of olive oil. Once browned, add it directly to the pot with the onions
6. Once all the chicken is in the pot, add chicken stock and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to lowand add pomegranate molasses, honey, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper and walnuts. Simmer for 15-25 minutes or more, until desired thickness is reached.
So imagine that you are sitting in a flat in Downtown Glasgow with your brand new TEXAS!AMERICAN partner/friend/person you get to introduce to the horrible world of GRADUATE STUDIES.
Up until now you’ve been living off Pizza and Ikea breakfast because you had to go pick out a desk and a fugly couch oh and since your (meaning -my-) birthday is when EVERYONE STARTS SCHOOL, you had a real nice birthday of ‘first thesis adviser meeting of the year’ for your speshul day.
But the ball finally drops. The flat is set up. The fridge is stocked. You are The Doctor and The Master (or you will be in about 5-6 years time)
Annnnnnd okay so pretty well? the very thought of more pizza, Indian or Chinese made us sick the idea of cooking or leaving the house made our joints go ‘what are you thinking!?’
We decided to try a Persian restaurant nearby.Long story short? We loved it. A short time later I learned my co-worker at the Hospital (Who had the same surname as me as her maiden name) had an Iranian husband and he was a fine cook with many recipes for this - my favourite dish.
Fessenjan is a dish that I’d perhaps describe as a cross between a curry and a thick stew. I like to serve it with rice I’ve infused with cinnamon, tumeric and if I have it a pinch of saffron.
Begin by boiling together 4 cups of pomegranate juice, 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 tbsp lemon juice until you get a syrup the consistency of warm honey or maple syrup (this should take you 50-70 minutes tops) and it both keeps fairly long and works with roasted root vegetables as a dressing (carrots, parsnips etc.)
For the Fessenjan:
Ingredients:
2 diced yellow onions
3-4 diced shallots
5 tbsp pomegranate molasses
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 cups walnut pieces roughly chopped - I just use a bag and rolling pin - which I suggest as it’s cathartic.
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (I do encourage you to buy fresh nutmeg and grate it yourself if at all possible - but if using fresh use 1/4 instead)
1/2 tsp tumeric
2-3 chicken breasts or thighs - use slightly less spices for dark meat or bone-in cuts.
2 cups chicken stock
4-5 chopped chives
salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil (more to hand)
1 tbsp salted butter (more to hand)
salt and pepper
Directions:
1. Lightly toast the walnuts by stirring them in a skillet over medium heat for a few moments. Use your sense of smell - they should be fragrant - when you can smell them cooking this is your direction to get them off the direct heat and place them into a blender or mortar and pestle. Either way you want to grind them to a fine grind (think coffee). Set to one side.
2. Season your chicken generously with salt and pepper on all sides.
3. Using the same skillet as your walnuts, add butter and olive oil and sear the chicken, then remove.
4. add the onions - if the pan is getting dry lubricate it with a touch more olive oil and butter - alternating
5. when the onions are just translucent and pliable but still slightly firm return the chicken to the pan and add the stock and chives and cinnamon stick. Let simmer at low heat for about 30 minutes
6. Remove the chicken a second time let rest
6.Add the nutmeg, ground cinnamon, and pomegranate molasses and maybe some salt and sugar to your own tastes. Turn to extremely low and stir often to prevent the sugar from sticking
7. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick. Cut or shred your chicken and Serve this over the infused rice or white rice or rice that has a bunch of coriander seed in it.
