I tried this dish and had two very unusual reactions. I tried it with beef and loooved it, then duplicated the recipe with chicken. The mint sprinkled on top just makes the dish that much better.
Narsun
Meat with Pomegranat and Vinegar
Translation:
This is a Persian name, and its root is anarsirk, which means pomegranats and vinegar. The recipe of this dish is that yu cut up fat meat small and put it in the pot with water to cover, and you put the spices on it and moderate its salt and skim it. Cut up a small amount of onions and wash them and put in the pot. When it is nearly done, take pomegranate seeds, as much as needed and what the pot will bear, and pound them fine. Throw vinegar on them macerate them well by hand, then strain them and add the juice to the pot. Take walnut meats also as much as needed pound them fine. put as much water as needed in a pot and macerate the walnuts well and add them ot the pot wehre the meat is. Moderate it’s tasate with salt as desired and crumble bunches of dry mint onto its surface. Throw in whole pieces of walnut meats, and sprinkle a little rose water on top of it. Wipe the sides of the pot with a clean cloth and leave it on a quiet fire then take it up. (Rodinson, pp. 320)
Ingredients:
Basil 1/2 cup fresh
1/3 tsp cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground all spice, ground mace pinch of saffron
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1/2 cup whole walnuts
salt to taste
2 TBS vinegar ( I used balsamic)
3 TBS pomegranate concentrate
1/4 onion
1/2 lb fatty meat
Redaction:
I tried this with beef and chicken. The spices were chosen for what I think works well with pomegranate concentrate and balsamic vinegar. Your dish, your taste so be creative.
Chop the quarter of the onion into small bits but not fine. Remember the spicing is for 1/2 lbs.
Here is both the beef cubes and the chicken. The pomegranate molasses, vinegar and walnuts are added later.
The more poundage used the more spices needed.
Put the meat with the spices, onion, ground walnuts into a pot with a little water.
Let it cook down until almost done, then add vinegar and pomegranate concentrate. Taste adjust as needed with salt, vinegar and pomegranate concentrate.
I forgot to add the ground walnut meat at the start so had to add towards the end. still turned out tasty. I didn’t like the walnuts. I found this did nothing for the taste, even taking away from the tart, minty, sweet. Personally, I wouldn’t use the walnuts again, but you may find you like the dish(es) better with than without.
Pull out and put into a bowl. Sprinkle with walnuts and dried mint. I had fresh but not dried so I used a handful of chopped mint (to taste).
Slow cook at 250 for two hours.
I was not impressed with the chicken. To me the sauce didn’t cook down enough to be great at flavoring. Perhaps if I had taken the chicken out and poured the juices into a pan to slow cook down the chicken dish would have been better