Lavangi

Caspian chicken stuffed with a dark paste of ground walnuts, fried onion, and sour pomegranate, baked until the skin crackles

Origin: Lankaran and the Talysh, southern Azerbaijan

From the journey of Pomegranate.

Lavangi is the festive stuffed dish of the Talysh people of Lankaran, the warm, green, subtropical corner of southern Azerbaijan along the Caspian, and it is the clearest cousin of the Persian fesenjan across the border: the same dark, rich marriage of ground walnut and sour pomegranate, here made not into a sauce but into a stuffing. A whole chicken, or a whole Caspian fish such as kutum, is boned and packed with a thick paste of ground walnuts, deeply fried onions, and sour-pomegranate paste or narsharab, often sharpened further with the local sour plum leather, then sewn up and baked or grilled until the skin is burnished and crackling and the stuffing within is dense, dark, and intense. The dish belongs to weddings, Novruz, and the great occasions of the Azerbaijani year, and it shows the Caucasian genius for the walnut paste at its richest. The pomegranate is essential and double: the sour fruit, as paste or narsharab, sours and darkens the walnut stuffing from within, and the fresh seeds are scattered over the carved bird at the table. Fish lavangi is the speciality of the coast; chicken lavangi the more common festive form inland, and the version given here.

Ingredients

Chicken

  • 1 whole chicken, about 1.6 kg
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • salt and black pepper

Walnut and pomegranate stuffing

  • 4 large onions, very finely chopped
  • 4 tbsp olive oil or butter (for frying the onions)
  • 250 g walnuts, finely ground
  • 4 tbsp pomegranate molasses or narsharab
  • 2 tbsp sour plum paste (lavashana) or 1 extra tbsp pomegranate molasses
  • 0.5 tsp ground turmeric
  • salt and black pepper

To serve

  • fresh pomegranate seeds, to garnish

Method

  1. Make the stuffing first. Fry the chopped onions in the oil or butter over medium-low heat, stirring often, for 20–25 minutes, until deeply soft, sweet, and golden-brown. This long, patient frying is the heart of the flavour.
  2. Tip the fried onions into a bowl and stir in the ground walnuts, pomegranate molasses or narsharab, sour plum paste, turmeric, salt, and pepper. The mixture should be a thick, dark, spreadable paste; if it is dry, loosen with a spoonful of water. Taste: it should be markedly sweet-sour and savoury.
  3. Loosen the skin of the chicken over the breast and thighs with your fingers and, for a true lavangi, bone out the cavity as much as you are able. Season the bird inside and out with salt and pepper.
  4. Pack the walnut-pomegranate paste firmly into the cavity and push some under the loosened breast and thigh skin. Close the cavity with a skewer or a few stitches of kitchen string, and tie the legs together.
  5. Rub the bird all over with the 1 tbsp olive oil and a little salt. Place breast-up in a roasting tin.
  6. Roast at 190°C (170°C fan) for about 1 hour 15 minutes, until the skin is deep golden and crackling and the juices run clear, basting once or twice with the pan juices.
  7. Rest for 15 minutes, then carve, giving each portion some of the dark stuffing. Scatter with fresh pomegranate seeds and serve, with plain rice or flatbread.

Notes

For the coastal fish lavangi, use a whole boned Caspian-style fish (trout, sea bass, or kutum), pack it with the same stuffing, and bake for 35–45 minutes. Lavashana, the sour-plum fruit leather of the Caucasus, gives the stuffing its characteristic extra tang; if you cannot find it, increase the pomegranate molasses. The dish is festive food, traditional to Novruz and weddings, and is good warm or at room temperature.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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