The mad scientist in the kitchen

[ritaxis]

So we have all these pomegranates, and pomegranate seeds in the freezer. I had this brilliant idea of making a cranberry-sort of thing using pomegranates instead of cranberries (I do not have a cranberry bog in my back yard). So I thrashed around a little. There's a recipe for a pomegranate-orange relish just like the raw cranberry-orange relish people make all the time. But somebody always makes that. The nice fellow actually likes the smooth, solid canned cranberry sauce better. So I decided to make pomegranate jelly. Thick and opaque, like the cranberry stuff.

I am here to report: partial success! I took a quart bag of seeds out of the freezer and thawed them in a little water, and then cooked them some so that the seeds all went pale, almost white, and the liquid was really red and tasted strongly of pomegranate juice. Then I strained out the seeds and mashed them to get as much juice out of them as possible. I got 2 cups of juice. I addded the juice and peel of half of a humongous navel orange. Then I brought it to a boil and added a box of no sugar needed Sure-Jell (pectin) and an equal volume of sucralose. This is about three times as much Sure-Jell as you'd use to make regular jelly with a similar amount of juice. I wanted it to set up thick. I cooked it the requisite minute after I added it, but now I realize I was supposed to let it get back to a boil before timing it. The pectin clumped an awful lot, I don't know why. But otherwise, it had a nice mouth feel where the clumps weren't, and it tastes magnificent. The biggest problem besides the clumping is that it looks rather like spleen. Also, I tried molding it but it didn't want to be molded.

It's a really strong tasting thing, so I decided to cut it with sour cream and serve it up as dessert this time. Also to lessen its visual resemblance to a hunk of spleen.

I have five more quart bags of seeds in the freezer and maybe a dozen more unbreached pomegranates. I can perfect this!

Comments

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you made a great dish! Here's my mother's Cranberry Salad (which is sometimes considered dessert). I think it would work with pomegranate seeds.

Cranberry Salad
serves 8

1 package cranberries
1 #2 can crushed pineapple
1 package miniature marshmallows
1.5 cups of sugar
0.5 pint whipping cream
0.5 pint nuts

Grind up cranberries.

Mix together all except whipping cream and let stand in
refrigerator overnight. Before serving, add whipped cream.

(I usually use Cool Whip instead of whipping cream.)

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I could do something like that, too.