RFCJ RECIPE ARCHIVE
Posted by : Ruth Heiges Pomegranate Tips
This is from the New York Times of November 11, 1998, but timely for those of us who have traditional pomegranates available at Rosh Hashanah. Barbara Kafka, one of the my favorite food authors, writes: "For the child in all of us, pomegranates make things easy. All you need are a metal skewer and a straw. Punch the skewer through the fruit's leathery red skin, slip a straw into the hole, and slurp up the sweet and sour juice." She also gives the following tips: To juice a pomegranate, first cut it in half between the stem and blossom end. Holding one half over a bowl, use a citrus juicer -- an electric one is easier -- to extract the maximum amount of juice. A large ripe pomegranate will produce a half cup of juice; a small one will give as little as a quarter cup. To seed a pomegranate, cut it into quarters. Working over a bowl, use a small spoon or your fingers to gently pull the seeds away from the pulp. (The juice may stain your fingers temporarily, but it washes off easily.) The seeds are fragile, so take care to keep them whole. As the seeds are pulled away, they separate from each other. Drop the seeds into a measuring cup, and pick off any white membrane clinging to them. A large pomegranate will yield a half cup to one and a half cups of seeds; a small one will yield a half to three-quarters cup. (If you end up with more seeds than you need for a recipe, sprinkle them over a fruit or green salad for color and crispness.)
