The Problem with Pomegranates
I have a produce bin full of pomegranates. This would probably be great if I was a Middle Eastern pasha but I’m just a gal who always puts her lunch together in a rush in the morning. I’d love to eat pomegranate seeds as a steady part of my diet but…they take too much time. Oh, now that we’ve been working our way through them, I’m getting faster but until they are bred so that the seeds just pop out in neat groups, this beautiful fruit is a lot of work.
And, I have yet to find a recipe that takes pomegranate seeds in large quantities. They are frequently used as a splash of color or tartness in recipes. When I had this same problem last year I had great success with mango pomegranate guacamole and “salad” that was spicy and chunky and crunchy and involved a lot of dicing. But so far, we’ve just been splitting one at a weekend lunch when we have a few moments to split, peel, sort, and seed.
In order to add a little color to the usual beige food of Thanksgiving, we brought along a salad that was pushed far to the side because of too much food already. However, after eating our Thanksgiving feast early in the afternoon and not overstuffing ourselves, that peckish feeling came over us about 7 p.m. Salad to the rescue! It was colorful and crunchy with spinach, pomegranate seeds, persimmons, sliced almonds and a lemony vinaigrette with a dash of honey from the backyard. I just adore casually mentioning that any honey I use is from the backyard.
We also took advantage of our local produce bounty with a caramel pumpkin pie with pumpkin from a squash, not a can, and a pecan-apple tart with our very local honey and apples from local backyards. The caramel in the pumpkin pie could have been more present and even though the pie was good, that extra step seemed like a lot of fuss for not much effect. The pecan-apple tart was well received and way less gooey then your classic pecan pie.
We had a fine Thanksgiving holiday and hope you had a fine and delicious one too.
For your cooking pleasure:
Apple-Pecan Tart
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/dining/121drex.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=peca...
