new food friday 11.19.10

by Stacy

It’s Friday again, and that means new food!

pomegranate

Hello, pomegranate. While driving through the central valley of California on our road trip we saw a lot of pomegranates. According to Wikipedia, pomegranates are fruit-bearing deciduous shrubs first brought to California by the Spanish in 1769. Gracias.

I’ve eaten pomegranate seeds (or “arils” as they are officially called) but I had never purchased a whole pomegranate before. Lucky for me they were on sale at the farmer’s market for $1. This will help balance out the cost of my license tabs doubling when we moved from Minnesota.

The major complaint I have heard about these antioxidant-rich fruits is that the seeds are a pain to extract. It took a little work, yes, but here is my method of how to cut open a pomegranate:

how to cut open a pomegranate

Use a knife to score the skin of the pomegranate around the top, like you would for a jack o’ lantern.

how to cut open a pomegranate

Pry the “lid” off the fruit and note where the white membranes connect to the peel. Score along the six membranes and open up the fruit.

how to cut open a pomegranate

I read afterward that people suggest separating the arils out in a bowl of water, as the edible arils sink and the membrane floats.

how to cut open a pomegranate

pomegranate seeds

I didn’t have a lot of trouble, and it was much better than paying $5 for a tiny tub of seeds at Whole Foods. I was impressed that a single fruit yielded about a cup of seeds, which was more than I expected.

pomegranate seeds

In addition to being tasty and good for you, they’re just so darn pretty.

How do you use pomegranate seeds?

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Angie November 20, 2010 at 9:01 am

In college I used to snack on pomegranate seeds and half the fun was picking away that the membrane and finding seeds. It would sometimes take me a couple of hours to eat one.

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Stacy November 20, 2010 at 10:23 pm

You’re hardcore, man. Can’t wait to see you guys next week!

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mangocheeks November 25, 2010 at 11:58 am

Ah this brought back childhood memories, this is the way my mother of South Asian background cut open our pomegranates when we were small. None of this awdward teasing out … or bashing.

Reply

Kate March 7, 2012 at 2:41 pm

Hi Stacy:

An even easier way to seed a pomegranate, is to cut it directly in half, hold one half in the palm of your hand, seed side down over a bowl, and whack the back of the skin with a wooden spoon, and a shower of arils just slide through your hands into the bowl. Do the other half, and voila!
I read this in the Ottolenghi cookbook, Plenty. So easy.

Cheers,

Kate

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