Monday, October 29, 2007

It's Pomegranate Season

Fall is such an exciting season for produce!
Just when the peaches disappear and the watermelon gets expensive there is a whole new crop of exotic autumn wares. Even the most boring of grocery stores are carrying all those beautiful gourds and squashes not to mention the quince and persimmons, but tonight I purchased the king of fall fruits, the Pomegranate. It is such a manly fruit, all red, tough skinned and difficult to open. And what other fruit is both juicy and crunchy at the same time?

In honor of it's arrival, I've listed out a few tips and suggestions for enjoying the sweet and tarty Pomegranate.

Part of the fun of a pomegranate is opening it up, you want to get to the juicy seeds, but you don't want to pop them all over yourself in the process.

  • Never slice through it with a knife, instead gently insert knife into the bottom an inch or so and then pry it open with your hands. It should just crack apart leaving all those juicy pods intact.
  • Fill a large mixing bowl with water and submerge pomegranate and hands into the water, now you can gently pop off the seeds into the water without squirting juice everywhere.
  • Do several at a time and then save the seeds in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
While they are great just eaten from a bowl there are many other ways to enjoy their heart healthy goodness.
  • Juice them in the food processor then pass through a sieve to get rid of extra seeds.
  • Add them to vanilla ice cream.
  • Fruit salad with pomegranates. How gourmet!
  • I wonder if they would make good jam, think I'll have to try that.
  • They are a hit in holiday fruit baskets.
Official Happy Housewife Recommendation
  • Pomwonderful fruit and juice are truly superior to other brands, especially the juice. To my knowledge they are the only company who juices both skin and fruit which produces not only a deeper richer flavor but more concentrated health benefits as well.
Pomegranate Trivia
  • In greek mythology it was eating a pomegranate that doomed Persephone to spend three months each year in the underworld.
  • I once heard Martha Stewart say that she loved to sit up in her white bed with a knife and a pomegranate as an evening snack, as if she was defying the fruit to get her sheets stained.

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