Pomegranate Molasses - How to Make Your Own

 I have a very long and overdue post that pays tribute to the Pomegranate.  A year ago, the lovely folks at Pom Wonderful contacted me and asked if I'd like to try some of their 100% pure pomegranate juice.  No sooner did I respond "yes, please" than UPS delivered six bottles of their 8 ounce juice.  I admit that, at first taste, I wasn't as smitten with the flavor of the juice straight out of the bottle.  On the other hand, I did mix up a POM Cosmo for a dinner party.  We liked it!   Hidden in the back of my new (and very large) refrigerator, three remaining bottles were forgotten.  (Ahem.  I apologize, POM Wonderful, for my bad manners.) Months ago, I saw a photo of Pomegranate Molasses.  I was intrigued enough to bookmark Alton Brown's recipe and life got in the way...

I recently spotted a recipe that sounded like the perfect opportunity to use Pomegranate molasses, so I bookmarked it for one our Thanksgiving side dishes.  I can't say that I've ever seen it at the various grocery stores where I shop.  At last, an opportunity to learn how to make some new had presented itself!  I wondered if the unopened juice (in my fridge) was still good, so I cracked one open.  No scary odors were detected, when I sniffed it.  With Food Network's Alton Brown's recipe printed, I got three ingredients together:

 

4 cups of Pomegranate juice, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon of freshly lemon.  That's it!

Place the pomegranate juice, sugar and lemon juice in a 4-quart saucepan set over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has completely dissolved.  This is where patience comes in.  The liquid needs to be reduced for at least  on medium-low heat.  The recipe said 70 minutes, but I suspect it varies because mine took about 90 minutes.

TIP: To a wooden spoon, I add a rubber band to the top of where the liquid level begins. This way, I can visually determine how much the liquid has reduced.  (I do this, often, when I am making a pan reduction sauce.)  Since I am starting with four cups of liquid, I know that I three cups of liquid needs to evaporate.  Once again, be patient!  90 minutes later, the liquid has become thick and syrupy.  I like to freeze a spoon, to test how thick a liquid has reduced (an old jam "canning" technique).  The color look like liquid rubies!

The heat is turned off and I let the syrup sit in the pot for 30 minutes.  As you can see (photo below, top left), the syrup has begun to "set".  Using a sterile and clean canning jar, I begin to pour the pomegranate molasses...

This is such a beautiful color!  I'm so pleased with the thickness of the molasses.  It's that easy!

This will store in the refrigerator for up to six months. 

VERDICT:  At firs taste, the molasses makes me pucker a bit (I am very sensitive to sour taste anyway).  This is not an unappealing kind of tart, though.   It's a very rich and very concentrated flavor of pomegranates.  I actually liked it!

I am smitten with the beautiful red color!

So, what does one do with pomegranate molasses?  It makes a beautiful glaze.  I've seen dessert recipes and savory recipes.  On my next post, I'm going to show you how I took Brussel sprouts to a new height.  I'm pretty confident I'm going to turn non-Brussel sprout lovers into believers that Pomegranate molasses (and a few other lovely ingredients) will have you spooning seconds on your dinner plate.

You will want to make this dish.  I'm that confident.  So, hurry! Buy some POM Wonderful juice and make this molasses. It will rock your Brussel Sprout World, as you've known it.  It rocked mine. I'm a changed woman. Come to think of it, I'm starting to see Pomegranates as the new sexy food.  There are so many recipe possibilties to come. (I'd love to have  a lipstick that color...or toe polish.  Never mind.  It's post-turkey tryptophan!)

Thank you, POM Wonderful.  I really do appreciate your product and I'm a believer in the health benefits and I'm plotting to try new recipes, from your website.  (Psssst, I'd sure love one of those aprons. They are hilarious!)

A printable recipe card is at the bottom of this post.





Disclaimer: While POM Wonderful provided me with FREE pomegranate juice, have received no monetary compensation for my recipe or review. 

Burger Sliders (or Mini Man Burgers) with Special sauce and homemade pickles

Last week, Whole Foods had grass-fed ground beef on sale for $3.99 a pound. How could I possibly resist that price for such quality beef? I spotted a bag of potato rolls and I had an idea that Beef Sliders would be fun to make.  I've never made sliders, myself, but I see them all over Blogosphere.  How hard is it to shape mini patties, for Pete's Sake?!  Still, I like to Google and see if anything interesting pops up. Sure enough, Alton Brown's "Mini Man Burgers" recipe popped up.  As I read his directions, I said a silent thank you to Mr. Good Eats.   Here you go, Alton-- here is your version, with my own garnishes:

I grabbed a jelly roll pan and some parchment paper.  I cut a piece of plastic wrap, and a rolling pin.
Roll one direction...

...and another direction. The idea is to roll the ground meat very thin.  Now, it's time to season the meat.  Alton uses onion powder and garlic powder, salt & pepper.  That's fine.  But, I'm enchanted with the Susie-Q Santa Maria seasoning that I've blogged about a couple of times, this month.   I use it on veggies and as my "go to" quick seasoning. No MSG, too.

Sorry, the shot is a little out of focus. But, I wanted to show you the label of the product. If you can find this at your local supermarket, this will become a pantry staple.  Otherwise, go with Alton's seasonings. Or, have fun experimenting. You could season this with a South of the Border Flair-- taco seasoning.  Use Greek seasoning. The sky is the limit.

Now fold each side in, using the parchment paper is helpful. Whatever method you use, don't forget to wash your hands thoroughly when you are finished. The raw meat police is watching.  I realized, later, that cheese could be easily layered as well.  Imagine those possibilities, would you? Feta... Parmesan... Smoked Gouda. But, this time I skipped the cheese.  Grab a pizza cutter, or your favorite cutting tool. I love my metal bench scraper.

One pound of beef makes 8 burgers.  You could easily substitute ground chicken, turkey or even lamb.

Grill each mini burger for 2-3 minutes, per side.

These kind of resemble White Castle Burgers. Only, I think these taste better.  I made a mayonnaise by adding red chili sauce and some sweet pickle relish. For a garnish, I cut a garden tomato and I had the perfect excuse to test drive my homemade Bread & Butter Pickles.

For a side dish, Garlic Oven-Fries  are perfect.

I'll be making these for Super Bowl. But, first, there are a few Friday Happy Hour's until January.  Simple. Easy. Delicious! 

From my kitchen to yours,

4th of July Good Eats & Music & Laughter

I have mentioned, several times, that my husband doesn't cook. Well, he does-- but his repertoire is very limited. He grills a great burger and he'll follow instructions on grilling-- as long as I give him a timer.

Craig surprised me by making this very delicious, and healthy salad, to bring to my brother's BBQ for the 4th of July. The recipe is posted at the very bottom of this page.

Before I share the recipe-- and I think it's worthy of being shared with all of you-- I have to say that I drew some interesting reactions from guests who met me for the first time. Someone asked why I was taking a picture of a salad. My brother's girlfriend, Susan, quickly explained that I'm a "Foodie" and I have a food blog.

Fred's friends took it in stride, and eventually started teasing me when it was time to eat dessert. I was asked if I had photographed it, before they started serving themselves. Can you fellow food bloggers relate to this?

My brother made his wonderful grilled shrimp. Fred butterflies the shrimp and marinates it in olive oil, lemon, garlic, herbs and salt and pepper.

He grilled these with sausages and some beef, for the carnivores...


But, I only had eyes for the shrimp ...

This tasted great with Craig's salad and the Garlic Cheese Bread that I made. I have a confession to make-- I did not make the Texas Sheet Cake, like I said I would. My brother said that they had plenty of desserts, and they were right. These were two of my favorites:

Pictured: a slice of "Avocado Pie and Gayle's Bakery Flag Tart"

Thanks, Ashley, for bring this beautiful tart from Gayle's Bakery--filled with pastry crema and fresh berries and whipped cream!

An interesting dessert that was brought by Ilene (if I'm spelling your name wrong, please email me and I'll fix it)... who made "Avocado Pie". Yes, that's right. Avocado Pie! How Californian is that? Truthfully, I had to pause and try to visualize what that could taste like. At first, I couldn't get past the thought of guacamole pie.

I tell you the truth-- it was delicious! It reminds me of key lime pie, but a lighter more chiffon texture to it. Ilene says she'll give me her top secret recipe, but I had to promise I would not post it. It's top secret. Sorry. Has anyone ever made this? So, here's a photo of it. I'll have to recreate this, because it was light and very refreshing.

My brother is a life-long musician and a darned good photographer. He's getting ready to market his private collection of photographs-- including the Monterey Pop Festival 1967 (yes, I was there). He has beautiful black and white photos of Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Brian Jones (one of the original members of the Rolling Stones) and many famous musicians of the '60's, 70's and 80's.

Pictured: Craig and a few of Fred's own photographs. If you're a "Dead Head" then, you'll recognize Jerry Garcia on the lower left, Dizzy Gillespie.

I took a few shots of his small dining room that he has converted into his music equipment room. If you're a fan of groups like the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Brother, Moodly Blues-- and so many other groups-- Fred has all of his backstage passes mounted on the wall. There are so many. He has signed drum sticks from "The Who", a piece of Jimi Hendrix guitar, autographed... Rock & Roll memorabilia! This is truly, a bachelor musician's home.

Of course, a visit to my brother's house always ends up with his friends plugging in one of his vintage collection of guitars and the singing and music starts up. I've grown to love this. Pictured on the bottom right is Peter Cor, who has written several songs for Earth, Wind & Fire (and is very low key about telling you). He's from New York and I adore his infectious laugh and sense of humor.

Yes, I had a lot of fun. Susan and I got caught up in photographing each other!

I so would love to have that camera, but I think my brother would notice it was gone.

If you find yourself in Santa Cruz on July 26th for the "Wharf-toWharf race", keep your eyes peeled for his group "The Noisy Neighbors". Every year, there are dozens of bands who set up along the runner's route (which is right where my brother's house is"). If you like to hear true rock 'n roll, request any song and I guarantee they can play it. You never know which celebrity or studio musician will be playing music-- Santa Cruz is known for surfing, music and a lot of "earth muffins". It's an interesting place to visit.



Enjoying Life,

Filet of Beef au Poivre and Purple Asparagus, at a fine restaurant

My husband asked me if I'd like to go out to eat, tonight. At first, I said "yes". But, as the day progressed, I decided to stay home instead. I remembered that I had four pieces of frozen filet mignon, and I had just purchased purple asparagus, at Trader Joe's. I was intrigued by the asparagus (and I don't recall seeing this before) At $2.99 per package, I wanted to try it, so it came home with my groceries. I also found some red bliss and yukon gold potatoes that were hidden in the corner of my produce bin. To me, it made sense to cook what we had, on hand, because this would be a pretty quick meal to put together.

I remembered seeing my talented and classy food blog friend's, posting from , "Stacey Snacks" for a Beef au Poivre that she made for her husband. I'm a big fan of Alton Brown (having recently seen him in my hometown of Monterey, just last month) and I've had good luck with several of Emeril Lagasse's recipes (BAM!). I adapted both recipes to suit my preferred method of cooking filet mignon (and salmon). That is, I prefer to sear the meat and then roasting it in the oven.

Would you believe I've never had Beef au Poivre? That's because I use pepper, sparingly, on my own plate-- and I was afraid that the pepper would be too much for my own palate. My husband loves pepper, so I decided to try it. I figured that if I didn't like it I could just scrape off the pepper.

Cracking peppercorns is a royal pain! Honestly, I used my mortar and pestle and the darned round peppercorns went all over the place! Am I the only one? I skipped to using my cast iron skillet, which took some elbow grease and pounding-- my husband thought I was remodeling my kitchen! I got the job done, but it was a challenge.


As for the purple asparagus-- I decided to roast these with some olive oil and salt and pepper.
The potatoes got the same treatment, only I added some fresh cut rosemary. The potatoes went into the oven at 425F while I prepped the vegetables and the meat-- I figured they'd take about 20 minutes to roast, in small chunks.

The cognac sauce was new for me to make myself, as well. To be honest, I've never really done the flambe' thing. I did it! Off heat, I used my fireplace lighter and "poof"! Fancy!

Once the alcohol burned off, I added the heavy cream and let it thicken-- this took about 8 minutes. It definitely needed salt, but the cognac taste calmed down, and it didn't overpower the flavor of the sauce.

We like out steak cooked between medium rare and medium-- more on the pink side. Spot on! The beef was very tender; it was affordable from Costco. The purple asparagus, we thought, had a subtle sweeter taste than green asparagus. (What a wild looking soup this would make!)

This dinner was on the table in 30 minutes. I have to say, that the dinner was elegant and delicious-- I figure that the cost of making this was 1/4 of the cost of what our dinner tab would have been. I actually liked all the pepper! My husband gave it five stars-- his highest honors. My son loved it, though, he wants me to skip the peppercorns the next time I make it for him. He seems to share my lackluster love affair of pepper.

The fourth filet is reserved for something else-- probably my quickBeef Stroganoff recipe, from Cook's Illustrated. We shall see, but it will not go to waste!

Humbly said, this tasted as good as any fine restaurant. The only thing missing was a good bottle of wine. As for not having to do dishes when we go out to eat...my husband and son cleaned up the kitchen, so in a way, it was a night off for me. Part of my strategy in saving money is to get closer to my dream of a new and bigger refrigerator. Clever girl, huh?

(Not to worry, though. I got a rain check for going out to dinner. I think I'll save it for a week night, when my knuckles are dragging as I walk through the door after work.)