So I went back to Iran about a month ago and oh my, the food was as amazing as I remembered it. We went to this fancy new Restaurant called Divaan in Tehran with my parents and one of my friends. My parents and my friend all got an exotic Persian dish, I on the other hand, ordered the wrong thing. As a result, I ate almost half of my friend’s dish which was an amazing “khoreshte nanaa jafari va artisho”. The taste was so great that I was determined to make this dish and master it, and so I did. Not to be bragging, but it turned out great.
So without any further ado, here is the recipe. (Some of the ingredients needs a trip to the Persian Store)
Serving: 4
Ingredients
- 1/2 lbs top round eye beef
- 2 bunches fresh parsley
- 1 bunch fresh mint
- 2 cans of cooked artichoke hearts
- 1/2 large onion
- 2.5 tablespoon dried lime powder (can be found at a Mediterranean or a Persian store)
- 1/6 tbs ground saffron
- 1/2 tbs tomato paste
- 1/4 tbs turmeric
- 1/2 tbs corn starch
Directions
Cut the meat into small cubes. Chop and fry the onions. When onions are turning brown, add the turmeric mix well and add the meat. Cook the meat with the onions until all sides are slightly brown and there is no more juice left in the pan. Add salt and pepper and 3 cups of water and let it cook for 45 min. Make sure the mixture has enough water at all times.
While the meat is cooking, wash and clean the herbs. Try to only use the leaves and throw away the stems. Chop all the herbs finely preferably with an electric chopper.
Add cooking oil to the pan and saute the herbs for about 10 min until you smell the aroma. Set aside.
Saute the artichokes for 5 min and set aside.
Check the meat after 45 min and make sure it’s cooked. Add the herbs, the dried lime powder, tomato paste, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well, add water as needed and let it cook for another 45 min. Make sure the mixture keeps it’s stew like consistency at all times. Don’t leave it cooking and go take a shower, the water will evaporate pretty quickly.
Mix the corn starch in warm water and add to the stew. This step is to make our stew’s consistency a bit thicker so it’s not all watery.
Now it’s time to add the artichokes. You want to do this step at the very end because we don’t want the artichokes to get smashed while cooking for a long time.
Taste and make adjustments to your taste (add salt and pepper or dried lime powder if you’d like). Add the saffron and cook for another 5 min. Serve over basmati rice.
Nooshe jaan!
