Persian Yellow Plum Stew (Khoresh Aloo)

This dish is one of my favorite Persian dishes, and is best enjoyed in the summer time. It is a stew made of fresh herbs and yellow plums, all of which taste the best in the summer months.

Persians love their food sour, which is why I call for semi-ripe plums and why I don't have an exact measurement in the recipe. If you prefer your food sweeter, I would suggest either using ripe plums or more sugar. For me, 2 Tablespoons of sugar was good enough.

Yellow plums are typically harvested June - Sept, and are about the size of golf balls. They are very sour when unripe, but very sweet with a honey like taste when ripe.

This stew calls for A LOT of fresh herbs. Our local grocery store sells Italian parsley for cheap but that's not always the case depending on where you live. Alternatively, you can grow your own herbs, which is very easy to do.

Mint grows like weeds in our garden, so I make a lot of dishes that incorporate mint in the summer time. I'll even stuff them in my sandwiches just because I can!

This recipe yields 4-6 servings.

Persian Yellow Plum Stew (Khoresh Aloo)
- 25 semi-ripe yellow plums
- 3/4 lbs stewing beef or good quality steak cut in 1 inch cubes
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 8 cups of fresh Italian parsley, loosely packed and finely chopped
- 3 cups of fresh mint , loosely packed and finely chopped
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 1/2 cups of water
- salt
- pepper
- 2-4 Tbsp sugar

Method
1. In a lightly oiled pot, saute the onions until translucent. Add in the beef, turmeric and few shakes of salt and pepper, and saute until the beef is 3/4 of the way cooked.

2. Turn the heat down to a simmer. Add in the water, Italian parsley, mint, 1/4 tsp of salt, and simmer for 60 minutes with the lid on. Stir occasionally. Add in the plums and simmer until the plums have cooked and have fallen off the pit (approx 10 minutes). Remove the pits, add sugar, and stir gently. Serve hot with basmati rice.

I say to gently stir at the end because Persians like to see chunks of plum in their stew. CK and I like it more on the mushy side, so I probably stirred a bit more than I should have.

This is definitely is not a typical stew, and you need to develop an acquired taste for it. But honestly, get past the fact that you are eating plums for dinner, and embrace it! As I said, it is one of my favorite Persian dishes.