" It's shape, it's rich colour, just look at these amazing little seeds and this juice "
This was my conversation as I squeezed the fruit all over my chicken legs. Lets just say, Milton looked at me like I had lost the plot.
The POMEGRANATE. You know that red fruit with the hard outer shell, that you look at in the supermarket and think what can I do with this. You glance at the horrendous price but buy it anyway. Then you get it home, look guiltily at it in the fruit bowl for weeks, before finally deciding to cut it open. Then you splatter the bright red juice not only all over your freshly painted white walls of your kitchen but also all over that new white top you are wearing.
If you haven't already realised I am in love with the pomegranate. It can be found in Georgian cooking all year. It comes into season late September and is in abundance in the little fruit stalls at the moment. I brought 3 this week for little more than 2 nz dollars. The girls are loving them juiced in the mornings, or they just eat the seeds as a little snack, they are amazing in salads or as I did, just cut the fruit and squeezed the whole thing over my chicken.
Now the question is how do you get those little seeds out. I tried Jamie Oliver's idea of cutting the fruit in half and hitting the back of it with a wooden spoon, sorry Jamie this idea is bollocks. It's takes for ever and you still get covered in juice. The best way I have found is to cut the fruit in half, submerge in a bowl of water and sort of turn the fruit inside out, the little seeds just pop out. Usually they sink to the bottom and the white pith floats. Easy no splattering, you can even do it in your new white top.
Some facts
The pomegranate is one of the world's most ancient foods. The name pomegranate comes from Medieval Latin meaning "seeded apple." It has been named in many ancient texts from the Book of Exodus in the Torah, the Quran, the Homeric Hymns, and Mesopotamian records, to name a few. The pomegranate originally came from Persia, or modern day Iran, and the western Himalayas. It has been cultivated for millennia in places such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Russia, and the Mediterranean region. It migrated as far east as China and Southeast Asia and was found along the Silk Road as a symbol of abundance and posterity. It is also grown extensively in Korea, Japan, and Latin America, having been introduced there by settlers or traders.
For some recipes check me out on Pinterest. I'm loving the look of the pomegranate scones and the pomegranate and purple basil gin smash.
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