Wow -- you were right on target when this recipe made you think of Silk Road Cooking -- I'm pretty sure that the recipe in the link was a Najmieh Batmanglij recipe originally printed in a Vegetarian Times article on Persian vegetarian cooking.

I used concentrated pomegranate juice when I made this dish (diluted with water as per the recipe); I have also previously made it with straight pomegranate juice (not concentrate). The concentrate was a bit more tart & required more sugar/honey. You will most likely be able to find the pomegranate juice at a Turkish grocery (that's were I bought the concentrate; the regular juice & pomegranates were from a regular supermarket. I haven't seen pomegranate paste around here). If you can find the juice but not the fresh pomegranates you can probably leave them out as they're just a garnish, but they do add nice visual appeal and texture to the dish.