Recipe: Pomegranate molasses a versatile way to preserve flavor
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In Northern California, this is pomegranate season and, judging by my tree, this could be a bountiful year.
I have a single Wonderful pomegranate tree, a variety that repeatedly lives up to its name. And this year, it yielded dozens of softball-size fruit. The birds and squirrels took a large share, but I still managed to harvest about 30 pounds.
At home in our Mediterranean climate, pomegranates are a popular late fall-winter addition to local menus, brightening meals with bursts of flavor.
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Fresh arils – the juice-packed seed sacs – get sprinkled in salads and over entrees. Like little rubies, they decorate desserts.
But how do you enjoy that pomegranate flavor long after the season has gone?
Pomegranate molasses preserves that intense flavor and makes it easy to augment all sorts of dishes. Use it as a glaze on pork or chicken. Add a tablespoon to vinaigrette or other dressings. It’s a must for Mediterranean cooking.
The molasses is basically concentrated pomegranate juice. It will keep refrigerated for months.
On average, a pomegranate yields about 1/2 cup juice. This recipe used 6 pomegranates to make 1 cup molasses.
To produce juice, removed arils and then put them through a food mill. (While deseeding the fruit, wear old clothing that you won’t mind getting stained.)
Or simply cut the pomegranate in half, and juice with a citrus juice reamer. (It’s messy but fast.)
This molasses recipe can be scaled down as needed; it will reduce faster but watch closely.
Pomegranate molasses
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Makes 1 cup to 1-1/2 cups
Ingredients:
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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