Every now and then, you taste a new taste. It's a bit like what you imagine it would feel like to see a new colour - it opens up your tastebuds and your imagination. These moments are special because they are so rare. I had one of them the first time I tasted Persian cooking with pomegranate molasses. Pomegranate molasses are a transformative ingredient in savoury cooking but are also great in deserts - with a large bowl of Greek yoghurt or with champagne as an aperitif.
I recently had a large family meal to cook for my grandmother's birthday and having just bought a new bottle of the stuff from a Comptoir Lebanais http://www.lecomptoir.co.uk/shop.html I decided to cook Persian style for the event. This recipe is adapted from the traditional late autumn Persian dish done the same way but with walnuts. I find that the pistachio adds a more luxurious texture and taste to the stew but you can use either.
This dish serves 8 people
Ingredients:
12 Skinless, boned chicken thighs
2 large red onions finely chopped
2 large aubergines roughly chopped
2 cups of chicken stock
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp hot paprika
100g shelled pistachios
7tbsp pomegranate molasses
2 tpsb olive oil
Method:
Pan roast your pistachios for 1-2 minutes until you can smell the skin cooking and they start to brown a little - stir all the while. Then leave them to cool. Whilst you wait for the pistachios to cool, finely chop your onion and sauté it with the olive oil in the bottom of a large heavy based saucepan. When the onions are done, set aside, blend your pistachio until it forms a fine soft powder. Add your chicken and your aubergine to the pan with the onion in it. Sprinkle the paprika on top, and brown all over. Once browned, pour in your pistachio closely followed by the chicken stock and molasses. Bring to the boil, then turn down low and allow to simmer for an hour - if you have longer an hour and a half will make a richer flavour and more succulent chicken.
When your stew is cooking, start to prepare the accompaniments:
Spinach and cucumber yoghurt:
Ingredients:
200g spinach
2 cucumbers
1 garlic clove
1 tsp maldon salt flakes
300g greek yogurt
Juice from 1/4 of a lime
2 sprigs of fresh mint
Black pepper to taste
Method:
Wilt your spinach by placing in a large saucepan with a little water, stirring constantly until it is all wilted. Then remove and place in kitchen roll to remove excess water.
Grate your cucumber as you would a carrot, salt the grated cucumber and place in kitchen roll too
Leave for at least 1/2 hour, regularly squeezing the moisture out of both the spinach and the cucumber until it is as dry as possible. When the spinach is dry, place the mint on top and finely this mixture with a knife.
Take your garlic clove, peel and crush it with the side of a knife, then place the malton salt on top and scrape the side of the knife over the garlic, applying pressure until you have a garlic pulp.
I like to saute my garlic so that it's less indigestible, but if you're a big raw garlic fan, use as it is.
When your garlic is prepared and your greens are dry enough, add to the yogurt in a large bowl and mix. Add a lot of freshly ground black pepper to taste and a little lime juice (1/4 will do it)
I served my dish with a watercress side salad with a light mustard vinaigrette. I also cheated and heated up some ready made naan rather than making rice, as it goes much better with the textures of the stew and the yogurt dish.
Fresh pomegranate seeds are a nice touch for serving too and really brighten the table up.
For desert, Flo made petit fours: home made marshmallows, macaroons, lemon and poppyseed miniature sponges and raspberries. These were absolutely incredible but will make a Flo blog post for another time.
