Fesenjoon is an Iranian Chicken dish made with Walnuts, pomegranate molasses and chicken and is delicious. Mitra introduced it to me.

Ingredients:

- Chicken pieces from 1 chicken
- Ground walnuts, 1 pound
- 3-4 onions
- Pomegranate molasses in the bottle... 3/4 of the bottle aprox 6 fl oz
- Sugar, 2-3 spoons ...you can add more if you want it sweeter
- 1/2 cup of cooking oil
- Salt

Directions:

Slice and fry onions until slightly golden... Take chicken pieces and add with the onions until color changes. Add 3 glasses of hot water and let it boil...... Then turn heat down and let it boil slowly for about 30 minutes adding more hot water if needed. Grind walnuts in a food processor till a fine consistency looking kind of like sugar. Then add nuts, salt and pomegranate paste to chicken. You may need to add a glass of hot water if the paste is too thick. Add sugar to the sweetness wanted, making sure its not too sweet. Proper fesenjoon should be sweet but at the same time a little tart. Cook it long enough till all of the oil from the walnuts rises. You will see a layer of oil that I suggest you should scoop out later. The consistency must be thick. Serve it with some saffron flavored rice.

Pomegranate and Walnut Stew with Chicken

Recipe By: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/514634

Ingredients:

- 250 g ground walnuts, ground very fine for the correct texture, chopped fine will have a coarser texture
- 250m l chicken stock
- 1 chicken stock cube
- 4 golden plums, (optional), stones removed ( I used pitted plums)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 whole chicken breast fillets, I cut them in half to make two thinner fillets for easier cooking
- 1/2 large onions, diced
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
- 200m l fresh pomegranate juice, store bought (unsweetened), I used more molasses and just added extra water
- 3 1/2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses, Persian brand
- 1 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- few drops of beetroot extract, optional), I left out

Directions:

1. Place the walnuts in a heavy saucepan over a medium heat and stir constantly for 3-4 minutes or so, until lightly toasted.

2. Lower the heat slightly, add the chicken stock, the stock cube and the plums and cook for about 15 minutes.

3. In a separate large saucepan or casserole dish, heat the oil over a medium heat and fry the chicken on all sides to seal. Add the onions, turmeric and pepper.

4. Add the walnut mixture to the chicken, reduce the heat, cover with a lid and cook for a further 10-15 minutes.

5. Stir in the pomegranate juice, pomegranate molasses, sugar, and cinnamon and cook for 20 minutes more.

6. Just before serving, add the beetroot dye. Serve with rice.

I got a bottle at Trader Joe's once, and it's a wonderful thing to use--on ICE CREAM! Okay, I'm sure it's delish in other recipes as well ! lolam

Oh, and try mixing it with Chambord black raspberry liqueur and some cream over crushed ice. I don't really drink all that much, but gosh, it was heavenly!

Smiles,
Sooz

It makes a tart-sweet dressing, particularly good over beet salad. I make mine by roasting beets cut into smallish dice (about 1/3" cubes). I toss these with the pom dressing. To make this fancier, I crumble a little feta on top of the beets, then top with some chopped toasted walnuts. You can layer lettuce leaves below if you like your salads to be green.

The pom salad dressing also works with tossed greens, but you may not like the dark color.

Cheryl

Lars

Sooz, that drink sounds interesting...sounds like a summer dessert (like over ice cream, with a kick). Lars, I hadn't thought to drizzle it over fruit... a summer fruit salad addition. And I'll probably try some for salad dressing this week. I hope we like it LOL!