Persian Dill Rice

I had so much fun spending time with my friends and going around San Francisco during my Jamba Juice trip, that I decided I really needed a little vacation just to see everyone again and to do more things. So a few weeks later, lil' sis and went up for her birthday.

As a snack for the car, I hastily made kebabs with beef cubes marinated with Indonesian kecap manis. Lil' sis loved the simple marinade so much that despite telling the middle '87 we were bringing her some food, lil' sis ate it all. :P

Fessenjan (Persian Walnut-Pomegranate Glaze with Roast Duck)

The Zafarani Polow (Persian Saffron Rice) made a colorful bed for the Fessenjan (Persian Walnut-Pomegranate Glaze with Cornish Game Hens), but a dusting of pomegranate seeds from my tree and the dish became a thing of beauty.


I adapted my Fessenjan recipe for the glaze and used my Baked Chicken recipe to roast duck for the first time. The glaze worked perfectly and the skin was incredibly flavorful while the meat was moist and succulent. It was so good that after eating dinner, and eating slices of roast duck skin, my friend stayed around and ate a second dinner. :)

Zafarani Polow (Persian Saffron Rice)

Lil' sis says I always have to "mother" someone. Since she's gone, and since I've never been able to cook for just one, my cousins or friends have been frequent dining companions. The only difference is that unlike lil' sis, my friends seem to really, really appreciate my cooking and they wash my dishes. Ha! Take that lil' sis! :P

I had a couple of very small Cornish game hens that I was going to make into Fessenjan (Persian Walnut Pomegranate Glaze) but never got around to cooking before lil' sis left town. My oldest uncle's wife had also given me a duck that had been sitting in my freezer. But before we get to that, and because I had just figured out the trick for cooking basmati rice, you'll need something to go with that fessenjan.

Albalu Polow (Persian Sour Cherry Rice)

To go with my kefta kebabs (Middle Eastern ground meat kebabs), I decided to make albalu polow (Persian sour cherry rice). Isn't it puuuurdy? :)





The first time I heard about this dish was from a Persian friend in college who raved about his mother's cooking. Or maybe it was from his girlfriend at the time? Because she was describing his ex-girlfriend. Ex for many reasons, but one of them was because she picked out the cherries from his mother's sour cherry rice dish. *Gasp.* I know! The cherries are the best part! And also, she should have known better than to offend her boyfriend's mother. From that moment, my curiosity about this dish began.

Fessenjan (Persian Walnut-Pomegranate Glaze) with Cornish Game Hens

Updated from the archives November 13, 2009:




"Your chicken was soooooooooooooooooo good," said lil' sis last night. "Soooooooooooooo good. I scarfed it down."

I made fessenjan (Persian walnut pomegranate glaze) with Cornish game hens and dill rice. At turns tart and sweet, the glaze is a perfect accompaniment to poultry or spooned over rice. To lil' sis, fessenjan means yummy dinner, but to me, fessenjan was the beginning of my culinary wanderings.

Before college, I hardly ever went out to eat, and if I did, it was with family so it was always either Chinese or Vietnamese cuisine. My freshman year of college, I was in a dorm of 39 people with 16 different ethnicities. The close-knit atmosphere meant we eventually all got introduced to each other's culture and cuisine. Every time I make fessenjan, I get transported back to my freshman year, to the beginning of my discovery of other cuisines.