Fesenjān ( fa, فسنجان; also called ''fesenjoon'' in Tehrani dialect) is a sweet and sour

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables a ...

khoresh Khoresh ( fa, خورش) or Khoresht ( fa, خورشت, ckb, خۆرشت) is a generic Iranian term for stew dishes in the Iranian cuisine, Afghan cuisine, Tajik cuisine and also Kurdish cuisine. The word is a substantive of the verb ''khordan'' ...

) from Northern Iran. It is typically served over rice in the Iranian manner. Like other ''khoresh'' stews served over rice, ''fesenjan'' is common also to

Iraqi cuisine Iraqi cuisine (Arabic: المطبخ العراقي Kurdish: خواردنی عێراقی) or Mesopotamian cuisine is a Middle Eastern cuisine that has its origins from Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and the other groups of the regi ...

. As a festive dish for special occasions, it has become part of Jewish

Rosh Hashannah Rosh HaShanah ( he, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, , literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , lit. "day of shouting/blasting") It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (, , " ...

celebrations. Even though the typology of Jewish ethnic cuisines is imprecise, ''fesenjan'' may be considered part of Sephardic cuisine. In

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

, where it called ''fisincan plov'', the stew is made with lamb meatballs instead of poultry.

About

Fesenjān is flavored with pomegranate paste and ground

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

s (see '' bazha'') and spices like turmeric, cinnamon, orange peel, cardamom, and rosebud. It is traditionally made with eggplant and

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, qu ...

(

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...

). Fesenjān can also be made using balls of

ground meat Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other types of meats are prepared in a similar fashion, includ ...

or chunks of lamb. Depending on the recipe, it can have a sweet or sour taste. Fesenjān is served with Iranian white or yellow

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

(''

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small ha ...

'' or ''chelo''). If the pomegranate sauce comes out too sour, sugar and fried onions may be added to sweeten it. Sometimes, a hot iron is applied to cause

oxidation Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or ...

and darken the sauce's color. It is a dish that is part of the dinner table on

Yaldā Night Yaldā Night ( fa, شب یلدا ''shab-e yalda'') or Chelle Night (also Chellah Night, fa, شب چلّه ''shab-e chelle'') is an ancient festival in Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey celebrated on the winter solstice ...

celebrations.

History

The earliest known reference to fesenjān is in Mirza Ali-Akbar Khan Ashpazbashi's ''Sofra-ye at'ema'' from 1881, which lists ten different varieties of the dish: walnut (today the most common), almond, eggplant,

kidney bean The kidney bean is a variety of the common bean ('' Phaseolus vulgaris''). It resembles a human kidney and thus is named after such. Red kidney beans should not be confused with other red beans, such as adzuki beans. Classification There ar ...

quince The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard, aromatic bright ...

, potato, carrot, pumpkin, fish, and yogurt. The first dictionary to mention fesenjān is the '' Farhang-e Anandraj'', which calls it ''fasūjan'' and says that the dish originated in Gilan.

Culture

Fesenjān is an elaborate dish that is often reserved for special occasions. It is considered "a rich man's dish", which is referenced in the Persian expression "he behaves as if he has had partridge and fesenjān", meaning to show off or act pretentiously. In the traditional Iranian system of garm and sard foods (i.e. "hot" and "cold", respectively), fesenjān is considered "hot" because it uses walnuts, which are also considered a "hot" food. In order to balance out this hotness, sometimes people will add

coriander Coriander (;

(a "cold" plant) to it; peeled pumpkin is also added for the same reason, as well as to act as a sugar substitute.

References

External links

Khoresh fesenjan recipe
Azerbaijani cuisine Iranian stews Afghan cuisine Iranian cuisine Talysh cuisine Turkish stews Poultry dishes Walnut dishes {{turkey-cuisine-stub

About

History

Culture

See also

References

External links