Persian cooking: Fesen joon recipe

One of my biggest regrets is never learning to cook from my mum before it was too late. In her friendship group, she openly admitted that she wasn't the best cook when it came to Persian food but having tried to cook Persian food myself, I've realised that it isn't as easy at she made it look and that she was actually a great cook (memories of my zooloobiah disaster come flooding back as I type this!!!) 

In my opinion, Persian cuisine is one of the tastiest in the world and also hasn't yet had it's moment as it doesn't seem to have been widely discovered in the way other world cuisines have. 

Our nearest Persian restaurants are in London, for example, and we don't have any nearer to us sadly. 

I did however come across something the other day that I got very excited about - Nationwide delivery of frozen Persian meals from Modern Persian Kitchen. In fact, I placed an order as soon as I discovered it. We've gone for the Family Selection chef's pack. Next time it will definitely be the veggie option so that I can enjoy more of it. This time I was thinking of my family and what they would all enjoy the most. 

In the meantime, I started to crave Persian food. Although I never did learn to cook from my mum, one of her close friends gave me a Persian recipe book - It was her own treasured beloved copy - and to this day remains one of the kindest things someone has done for me. My dear auntie has also taught me some dishes when she has visited a couple of times in the past couple of decades and we miss her dearly living so far around the globe the rest of the time. And with the wonders of the internet, I'm always excited to come across Persian recipes.  

Now there are a few more unusual ingredients that you need for this recipe - but these days most ethnic stores or Amazon will sell these ingredients. Even supermarkets sometimes have some of these items. I'd say the key ingredient that you need that you may not ordinarily have at home is pomegranate molasses. Dried barberries and saffron for the rice also help complete the dish although it would be fine to serve with plain rice instead.

I found a recipe on Turmeric & Saffron that I used as a starting point for this. I love the idea of adding an apple - I've never done that before. Although I didn't add any sugar as I love the tangy sourness of the pomegranate molasses and the barberries. 

I've made my version meat-free using Meatless Farm mince as I usually keep a pack of that in my fridge. It has a longer shelf-life than meat and I use it in all sorts of recipes!  

Ingredients:

1 onion - diced

1 pack Meatless Farm mince

1 cup pomegranate molasses

1 apple - chopped

2 cups walnuts (finely ground)

A little oil

Half tsp turmeric 

Salt and pepper 

 

For the rice:

2-3 cups rice

2 carrots - grated

Handful of dried barbecues

Butter

Saffron, rose petals, ground cardamom 

 

Parsley to garnish 

 

Method:

1. Prepare the meatballs by adding salt, pepper and turmeric to the Meatless Farm mince and rolling into balls. 

 

2. Fry the onion in a little oil, then add the meatballs, gently stirring until browned. 

 

3. In the meantime, cook the rice according to pack instructions. My go-to way of cooking rice is wash, cover with water (a few centimetres above the level of rice), and pop in the microwave for 20-25 minutes (white rice) or around 40 minutes for brown rice.

 

4. Remove the meatballs and fried onions from the frying pan. Then use the same pan to dry fry the ground walnuts. They need to be finely ground. Keep stirring and keep a very close eye on it as they can burn easily. Once the walnuts have darkened (but not burned), add the pomegranate molasses and 2 cups of water. Add the meatballs/onions and apple and leave to simmer on a low heat. 

 

5. In a separate pan, fry the grated carrot and barberries in a little butter. 

 

6. Add the saffron to a small amount of boiling water. I used the contents of a saffron/rose/ground cardamom teabag but you can just use saffron if you wish. This is then stirred into the rice.

 

7. Serve the fesen joon with the rice and garnish with fresh parsley if you wish.