a passion for food and cooking inspired by travel, family and friends
I’m almost a whole year behind schedule. I am a finisher, so rather than abandon the plan to complete an alphabet of ingredient posts by the years end, I’ve just altered the year in which it will be completed! I feel a bit rusty on writing the posts, and so much has happened in our lives since the last post, but I’ll try to keep it simple….
I have had this recipe in my mind as the P post for some time. I have finally found some time to move forward with my alphabet of posts, but I think its time to admit it won’t be finished by the end of 2015. Perhaps end of the financial year?
Pomegranate, the fruit that is born from the Punica granatum tree is a beautiful apple-shaped fruit. The thick, inedible skin houses hundreds of tiny seeds (arils) that are sweet and juicy and mostly ruby red in colour. Some varieties are white with a rose tinge to it. This fruit is very commonly used in a arabic dishes and given the hardiness of the plant, tends to grow well in the middle easter and Mediterranean regions. They are well known for high levels of antioxidants and medicinal purposes.
The whole fruit is super impressive as a table decoration. Releasing the seeds can be a pain and a bit messy so we are lucky enough here to be able to get them already seeded and packaged up year round. At the moment they are super sweet and juicy. Did you know Grenadine (derived from the french word grenade, meaning pomegranate) is originally a syrup made from pomegranate juice and sugar. And that’s my lesson for the day.
Pomegranates bring a lot of travel memories; freshly squeezed as juice bought from street stalls in Istanbul and we even had them growing in our holiday villa in Spain this past July. The colour is just so amazing. It can liven up any dish just by sprinkling them over a pavlova, a green salad and is so festive. Coming into the Christmas season, this fruit certainly has its place here and this dish could very well be a highlight as part of a yuletide meal.
This recipe is from my favourite, Ottolenghi’s new book, Nopi. I’m so excited by this book!!! This recipe uses pomegranate in the seed form, in a salsa, and also the reduced syrup (known as pomegranate molasses), thick sweet and sour at the same time.
Its a bit of a unusual combination of flavours but the saltiness and fermented nature of miso against the sharpness and sweetness of the pomegranate is a taste sensation.
I used chicken supremes and didn’t actually use all of the miso butter so have put it in the freezer for a quick mid week dinner.
The salsa is so fresh and tasty, it could be used as an accompianment to other meat dishes quite easily.
We are camping in the desert this weekend. The first time since having children, our packing list has somewhat altered. We have a fancy tent, 5 sleeping bags and the essentials. I’ll keep you posted…
