Khoresh Karafs

It is soured with verjuice and the celery is the bulk of it rather than a flavouring.

Chicken, Beef, Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains beef, chicken, lamb.

Ingredients

• 1 kg celery, in 4 cm lengths
• 600 g lamb or beef, in 3 cm cubes, or 6 chicken thighs
• 100 ml verjuice, or 150 g unripe grapes
• 100 g parsley, chopped
• 50 g mint, chopped
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 80 ml sunflower oil

Method

1. IT IS SOURED WITH VERJUICE AND THE CELERY IS THE BULK OF IT RATHER THAN A FLAVOURING. Its article says the stew is characterised by being sour and that unripe grape juice is the souring agent, with lemon, lime, tamarind or citric acid as alternatives. And the name says the rest: a kilo of celery to six hundred grams of meat, in four centimetre lengths, so that celery is what you are mostly eating. Treated as an aromatic -- two sticks chopped small at the base of a meat stew -- it is a different dish and a duller one.
2. THE CELERY IS FRIED BEFORE IT IS STEWED. In the oil over a medium heat for eight to ten minutes, with the parsley and mint, until the edges catch gold. This drives off some water so the stew does not end up thin, and it takes away the raw soapy note that long-simmered raw celery keeps.
3. IT GOES IN FOR THE LAST FORTY MINUTES, NOT THE WHOLE COOK. Long enough to become tender and take up the sauce, short enough to still be lengths of celery rather than threads.
4. THE MINT IS A REAL QUANTITY AND IT IS FRIED WITH THE CELERY. Fifty grams. With celery and sourness and little else, mint is the third flavour the dish has and it has to be enough to taste.
5. THE MEAT IS FLEXIBLE HERE IN A WAY IT IS NOT IN THE OTHER STEWS. Its article makes the point: this recipe commonly substitutes chicken, unlike the herb stew or the split-pea stew, and vegetarian and vegan versions have become ordinary in Iranian homes, with white fava beans suggested in place of the meat.
6. BROWN THE MEAT WITH ONION AND TURMERIC FIRST. Onions gold, turmeric for half a minute, meat browned, water to cover, and an hour and a quarter at a bare simmer before the celery joins it.
7. THE VERJUICE GOES IN NEAR THE END AND IS TASTED. A hundred millilitres for the last fifteen minutes. Sourness is the character of the dish, but verjuice varies a lot in strength, so add two-thirds, taste, and decide about the rest.
8. IT IS SERVED WITH RICE AND ONLY WITH RICE. Its article says this stew, like all Iranian stews, is served exclusively with Persian rice.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Iran · All recipes