Beh-Aalu Khoresh

Beh-Aalu Khoresh (lit. Quince-Plum Stew) is one of the Iranian dishes that is mainly cooked by the people of Yazd. The simultaneous use of quince and plums gives a sweet and sour taste to this dish. As an autumn fruit, quince has many properties, which include helping the health of the digestive system, detoxifying the liver, treating cold and flu, and controlling blood pressure. Quince is also used for making jam.

Ingredients of the Beh-Aalu Khoresh

Quince: one large (or 2 medium size)

Onion: one large (or 2 medium size)

Cooking plums: 200 grams

Meat: 500 grams

Saffron: half a teaspoon

Sugar, cooking oil, lime juice or dried lime, tomato paste, salt, black pepper, and turmeric: as per taste.

You can use veal or mutton to cook this dish. It is possible to use chicken or turkey. Those who do not want to use meat can cook this dish without meat in a completely vegetarian way.

Recipe

• Chop the onion into small pieces.

• Chop the meat (boneless) into medium size cube-shaped pieces.

• Put the pot that you want to use for cooking on the heat and fry the chopped onion in it until it turns golden. Add the turmeric to the onion and continue frying until the turmeric is well mixed with the onion.

• Add the chopped meat to the fried onion. Pour black pepper and tomato paste into the pot and continue roasting. If you like, you can use fresh tomatoes instead of tomato paste at this stage. In this case, chop the tomatoes and continue roasting until the tomato juice evaporates.

• Continue frying until the color of the meat changes. Then add a few glasses of boiling water to the food, leave it in the pot, and let the mixture boil enough to get properly cooked.

• Cut the quince into medium size cube-shaped pieces.

• Heat a frying pan and pour oil into it. After the oil heats up a little, put the chopped quince in it and fry until it turns golden. If you want to save cooking time, you can skip roasting the pieces of quince, although the food will not be as tasty as it is when the quince is slightly roasted.

• After the meat is cooked well, add the quince to it, add salt and spices to the food, and wait for about 45 minutes until the food settles.

• Plums should be added in the last 15 minutes of cooking. Before adding, soak it in cold water for 15 minutes. Add sugar and lemon juice to the pot along with plums.

How to Serve the Beh-Aalu Khoresh

Beh-Aalu Khoresh is one of the dishes that is eaten with both bread and rice. Yogurt, buttermilk, and fresh eatable vegetables are also usually served side by side this Khoresh (or stew so to say). If you want to eat the Beh-Aalu Khoresh with rice, you can use butter to flavor the rice and increase the pleasure of eating! You can even eat this tasty Yazdi cuisine just with any type of bread available.

Beh-Aalu Khoresh (lit. Quince-Plum Stew) is one of the Iranian dishes that is mainly cooked by the people of Yazd. The simultaneous use of quince and plums gives a sweet and sour taste to this dish.