Pomegranate Khoresh Recipes

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken and onions in skillet, and cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in pureed walnuts, salt, pomegranate juice, and cardamom. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. (If the sauce becomes too thick, stir in 1/4 cup warm water.) Mix in sugar, adjust seasoning, and simmer 30 minutes more.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread walnuts out on a baking sheet and toast until golden brown inside, about 12 minutes. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
• Remove chicken skin and discard or save for another use. In a large bowl, season the chicken with turmeric, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.
• Set a large Dutch oven or similar pot over medium-high heat. When the pot is hot, add oil and carefully lay chicken thighs into the pot in a single layer. It is crucial to leave space between the pieces to allow steam to escape, so brown chicken in batches if necessary. Cook until browned on both sides, flipping halfway through, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove chicken from pot and set aside. Add onion to pot with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring regularly, until soft and golden brown, 16 to 18 minutes.
• In a food processor, grind the cooled walnuts as finely as possible without turning them into a paste. (Alternatively, you can chop the walnuts as finely as possible by hand.) Add 2 cups pomegranate juice and 1/4 cup molasses to the walnuts and continue blending until you have a very smooth paste.
• Add the walnut paste and remaining pomegranate juice to the pot. Season with salt and partly cover with a lid. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for about 2 hours. If the sauce begins to stick, stir in 1/4 cup water. The sauce will thicken and change color as it cooks, turning a deep, dark brown, similar to mole poblano.
• Add the saffron, and taste the sauce. Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and pomegranate molasses as needed. The sauce should be delightfully sweet and sour, so add up to 2 teaspoons sugar, if needed, if it's too tart.
• Add the chicken to the sauce and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes, or until chicken is falling off the bone. Keep stirring regularly - the sauce should be thick, but not so thick that it sticks to the bottom of the pot, so add a splash of water as needed to prevent burning. Use a large spoon to skim away any walnut oil that has pooled on top of the stew. Taste and adjust seasoning, transfer to a serving dish and garnish with a sprinkling of fresh pomegranate seeds. Serve hot, with Persian rice, mast-o khiar and salad-e Shirazi if you like.

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Stir in sliced onions; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, and continue cooking and stirring until the onion is very tender and dark brown, 15 to 20 minutes more.
• Raise heat to medium-high. Add chicken pieces, and fry until lightly browned on the outside. Pour in the water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary to keep the mixture from drying out.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (65 degrees C).
• Combine the walnuts and pomegranate juice in the container of a blender or food processor. Process into liquid. (This can be done in small batches if necessary.) Add walnut-pomegranate mixture to the simmering chicken. Season with cardamom, cinnamon, saffron powder, and salt. Stir in the cubed squash. Transfer the entire mixture to a 9x13-inch baking dish.
• Bake, loosely covered, for 2 1/2 hours in the preheated oven. Serve with white rice.

Steps:

• Bring 2 tablespoons water to a boil in a small saucepan, kettle or using the microwave, then let stand for 2 minutes to allow the temperature to drop slightly while you grind the saffron. Using a mortar and pestle (or small bowl with the handle of a wooden spoon), grind the saffron with a small pinch of sugar to a fine powder (about 1/4 teaspoon) and add the hot water. Gently stir, cover and let steep until ready to use.
• Season the chicken legs generously with salt (about 3 1/2 teaspoons). In a large skillet with a lid, heat 1/4 cup of oil over medium-high. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, reduce the heat to medium and add the chicken legs, skin side down. Cook until the chicken is golden, 5 to 8 minutes; we're not looking to brown the chicken skin here, just to get a nice golden color. Flip and cook the other side until golden, 5 to 8 minutes. You may have to do this in batches. Transfer the chicken to a sheet pan or large plate.
• Leave behind about 1/4 cup of the rendered fat in the pan and discard the rest. Add half of the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the onion with a little salt, 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and the black pepper, and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
• Transfer the chicken legs along with any juices back to the pan skin side down. Swipe the chicken through the turmeric-stained oil and flip so the skin side is up. Add 1 1/2 cups water, scraping up any bits stuck on the bottom. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and gently simmer the chicken for 25 minutes.
• Meanwhile, prepare the pomegranate sauce: In a small pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over medium. Add the remaining diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the onion with a little salt, add remaining 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric, and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Reduce the heat to medium-low, stir in the tomato paste, and cook just to take off the raw taste and deepen its color, but taking care not to burn it, about 1 minute. Add the pomegranate molasses, give it a quick stir just to incorporate (pomegranate molasses burns quickly), then stir in 1 1/4 cups pomegranate seeds and save the rest for garnish. Sprinkle with a little salt, and remove from the heat.
• Add the pomegranate sauce and the saffron water to the chicken, gently stir, and simmer uncovered over medium heat until the sauce reduces by about half and the chicken is tender, about 25 minutes. Every once in a while, spoon a little sauce over the chicken. If the sauce reduces too quickly, reduce the heat to medium-low or low. (You want enough sauce to spoon over rice and the chicken.) Taste for seasoning, and add a little sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the pomegranate molasses is too sour or bitter. If your sauce is too sweet, balance it with a little lemon juice, 1 tablespoon at a time.
• Garnish with reserved pomegranate seeds and mint leaves, and serve over rice with a side of fresh herbs, radishes and scallions.

Steps:

• 1. In a medium pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and stir-fry 5 minutes, until translucent. Add the chicken and fry for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Add the carrot strips and stir-fry 2 minutes longer.
• 2. Finely grind the toasted walnuts in a food processor. Add the salt, diluted pomegranate paste, sugar, cinnamon, and saffron water and mix well to create a smooth, creamy sauce. Transfer the sauce to the pot, cover and simmer for 40 minutes over very low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent the nuts from burning.
• 3. Taste the sauce and adjust for seasoning and thickness. This khoresh should be sweet and sour, and the consistency of heavy cream. Add diluted pomegranate paste for sourness or sugar for sweetness. If the sauce is too thick, thin it with warm water.
• 4. Cover and keep warm until ready to serve.
• 5. Serve hot with saffron steamed rice . NUSH-E JAN!
• Najmieh Batmanglij shares her tips with Epicurious: •Though many Iranians now use vegetable oil, clarified butter (ghee) is Iran's traditional cooking fat. To make it, start with a third more unsalted butter than you will need for the recipe. Melt the butter over low heat, then increase the heat to medium low and simmer the butter, without stirring, until it stops crackling and the milk solids brown and drop to the bottom. Skim off any foam from the top, and strain the ghee through a colander lined with cheesecloth. Ghee will keep at room temperature, covered, for several months. •Batmanglij recommends toasting the walnuts in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until they're golden brown - 5 to 10 minutes. •Pom Wonderful brand pomegranate juice, available in many supermarkets, works perfectly in this recipe. •Batmanglij recommends buying saffron in thread form rather than powder, which is often adulterated with turmeric. Before they can be used in a recipe, the threads must be ground with a cube of sugar, using a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, and then diluted in hot water. "The saffron water can then be stored and used as needed," says Batmanglij. "Never use the unground threads." Source Information