Pomegranate

Today is one of those rainy fall days when the leaves lose their crunch to the wet and become soggy. The light is inspiring and filtered through the clouds making the sky a giant soft box. A hot steamy cup of coffee tastes extra good and you want to put on warm socks grab a good book and snuggle under your new fall blanket. Well I may do the book thing a little later but now I have to catch up on my blog writing. So I am tethered to the computer for a good bit.

Today I am thinking about pomegranates. They are an amazingly inspiring fruit. When I first met one it was a mystery. What do you do with it? How do you eat it? What once used to be considered an exotic fruit is now commonplace in American cities.

The pomegranate is an ancient fruit originating in the Middle East. Westerners started embracing it when scientists discovered the leathery skinned reddish fruit with a crown on one end might help with heart disease, cancer and problems associated with aging. Loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, potassium, folic acid and iron. The pom is the new super food. It is replacing green tea and red wine in topping the list of anti-oxidant rich foods.

I like pomegranate fairly well but it is my daughter that is mad about them. In fact when I come into the kitchen after she has had one it looks like a crime scene from her favorite csi show. I think you know what I mean. The knife is a bloody/pinkish red and the cutting board is filled with the blood red juice dripping onto my counter staining it ever so beautifully. She is just lucky I am not a clean freak.
I tend to look at things in a real way. I like the way it looks all splattered about. Even though I wish Eva, my daughter would get a little better about clean up.

Anyway I tend to see beauty in the real and even messy parts of life. So the pomegranate crime scene can become a thing of beauty and inspiration.

On Halloween night we were at a neighbors for a little after trick or treat dining. Another neighbor Dillon and I were chatting of all things blogging and frugality. Two things I love talking about. Anyway we got talking about our favorite diy projects. I was telling him how I took a pomegranate that we had that was over ripe and browning inside and instead of throwing it into the compost I thought of the red juices that stained my cutting board and decided to take some gauzy fabric and dye it with the crushed pomegranate. Ok I do get a bit excited talking about creating something out of nothing. To me it is thrilling.

I diluted the juice from the crushed pomegarite with a little water and the cloth you see in the photo is the result. I like the color it is very subtle. Many foods are great for making natural dyes. How about beets red or orange, purple cabbage, turmeric, onionskins. What I like about natural dyes is they have a more organic feel to them.

I often dye my Easter eggs this way. Thanks to Ms. Martha Stewart.

So after I told him about my pomegranate dye he told me about a blog he saw that showed how to hit a pomegranate to get the seeds out easily. He did not remember his source or I would reference it. Anyway as in the picture you hold the half of pomegranate over a bowl and I used my meat mallet to whack it. Make sure the membrane is peeled away slightly this will help the seeds literally just fall out.

One quick whack 

hand model? I think not

Before my daughter would attack the pomegranate picking away frantically trying to get the seeds. Not anymore thanks to Dillon’s little suggestion. This method worked very well.

I saw an article on the internet on how to deseed a pom by soaking it in water to get rid of the juices and loosen the seeds. Oh such a bad idea. When you rinse the seeds you are losing all the good stuff. I also saw a piece of plastic in our local grocery that touts itself as a pomegranate deseeder. Come on you don’t need a $4.00 piece of plastic to get your seeds out. Just give it a good whack and your done.

I have to say that I get so many tips from people who are not necessarily in the “food business”.

That is why I am always very inquisitive and interested in learning how others do things. Sometimes I learn so much from unexpectant sources. If you have any tips to share about pomegranates or anything please comment. I love to hear what others are doing.