Picking pomegranates with a pin

During the summer holidays when I was a child, pomegranates from Israel would appear in our local greengrocers. Until then, grapes were the most exotic fruit I had eaten and they, being expensive, were reserved for hospital visits. I would happily spend a week’s pocket money on one of these delicious red balls and assisted with a safety pin, would extract its glistening jewels of seeds to eat one by one.

I have an ongoing love affair with the pomegranate tree. I love its rich orange flowers, the colour of smoked salmon, its slightly scruffy habit and the fact that it never seems to know whether it is deciduous or not and the fact its seed sparkles like the most expensive jewels. I have a miniature pomegranate in a pot that produces fruit the size of a plum so must rely on friends for my supply.

Here, pomegranates ripen in late autumn/early winter arriving with the apples and mandarins. Six beautiful fruit came my way this week and I was determined not to waste them. The ‘boys’ are meeting for a barbeque tonight so I used this as an excuse to bake a cheesecake and make a pomegranate syrup topping. I made the base gluten free with ground pecans, Arnott’s Rice Biscuits and some added rice crumbs.

Here’s the recipe, it makes about a cupful:

Pomegranate Syrup

3 ripe pomegranates
Juice of one lemon

Honey or sugar

Roll two of the pomegranates on your bench till they are softened.

Cut in half around their ‘equator’ and juice with a citrus juicer.

Place the juice in a small saucepan with one tablespoon of water and the lemon juice.

Drop in a good slurp of honey (I used about 3 tablespoons) or the equivalent of sugar.
Do not use a strong flavoured honey (like I did!) as it will over power the flavour of the pomegranates.

Bring to the boil over a high heat and then simmer until thickened.

While this is happening, trim off the flower end of your last fruit. This is the spiky little cup opposite to the stem.

Cut the fruit into four segments. For perfect seeds, only cut through the skin layer and then peel it back.

With the segments in a bowl, gently rub the red seeds away from the yellow pith.

Make sure all pith is removed as it can be very bitter.
Drain in a sieve until needed.

When the syrup has reduced and become thicker, stir in the seeds, reserving a few for garnish.

Allow the syrup to cool before serving.

Use over cheese cake, ice cream or pancakes.

For more on these amazing fruits see: http://www.nirala-naturally.com/pomegranate.html

Perfect winter pears

Half the people I invited to dinner this week were recovering from the latest nasty recurring cold that has been around this winter. The other half were worried about catching it! Chicken soup has always been my ultimate comfort food for illness and as it made sense to feed everyone copious amounts of garlic and chilli, I made a huge pot of chicken laksa with extra hot crunchy blachan on the side.

I was really stuck about what to serve for dessert. Whatever I made had to be quick to prepare and no fuss. Pears have been a good buy lately and I bought a couple of kilos of not quite ripe Packhams. I still had no idea of what to cook.  An e mail has been circulating on the health benefits of cinnamon and honey and I was sure the pantry would bring further inspiration.

Here's what I came up with:

Poached Pears in Ginger Wine

8 Pears, peeled but with stalks and cores left intact
1 C clear apple juice
1/2  C green ginger wine
3 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla pod split lengthwise
2 Tbsp honey

Cut a slice from the base of each pear so it sits flat.

Place in a slow cooker or a deep baking dish.

Place cinnamon, juice and wine into the dish, pouring the liquids over the pears.

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add seeds and pod to the dish.

Drizzle the honey over the pears.

Cover and cook on high for six hours in the slow cooker or covered in foil for an hour in 180˚C oven.

Baste occasionally with the juices.

The cinnamon will turn the juice a lovely pink.                                               

Serve pears with some of the syrup, which can be reduced to thicken if you wish, with crème fraiché, yoghurt or custard.  

Perhaps the vanilla pod was an unusual addition but as Amita had just arrived back with the softest most luscious smelling vanilla pods from Indonesia, how could I not use them? We have more than we need, so we have a limited amount for sale. If you would like some, click here.