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Pomegranates can add Mediterranean touch year-round

Recipe: Pomegranate molasses a versatile way to preserve flavor

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED NOV 10, 2019

Pomegranates are in season now. Making molasses from the juice saves their wonderful flavor for months.
(Photos: Debbie Arrington)

In Northern California, this is pomegranate season and, judging by my tree, this could be a bountiful year.

I have a single Wonderful pomegranate tree, a variety that repeatedly lives up to its name. And this year, it yielded dozens of softball-size fruit. The birds and squirrels took a large share, but I still managed to harvest about 30 pounds.

At home in our Mediterranean climate, pomegranates are a popular late fall-winter addition to local menus, brightening meals with bursts of flavor.

Fresh arils – the juice-packed seed sacs – get sprinkled in salads and over entrees. Like little rubies, they decorate desserts.

But how do you enjoy that pomegranate flavor long after the season has gone?

Pomegranate molasses preserves that intense flavor and makes it easy to augment all sorts of dishes. Use it as a glaze on pork or chicken. Add a tablespoon to vinaigrette or other dressings. It’s a must for Mediterranean cooking.

The molasses is basically concentrated pomegranate juice. It will keep refrigerated for months.

On average, a pomegranate yields about 1/2 cup juice. This recipe used 6 pomegranates to make 1 cup molasses.

To produce juice, removed arils and then put them through a food mill. (While deseeding the fruit, wear old clothing that you won’t mind getting stained.)

Or simply cut the pomegranate in half, and juice with a citrus juice reamer. (It’s messy but fast.)

This molasses recipe can be scaled down as needed; it will reduce faster but watch closely.

Pomegranate molasses

Arils from six pomegranates, enough for 3 cups juice.

Makes 1 cup to 1-1/2 cups

Ingredients:

3 cups pomegranate juice

Juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup sugar

Instructions:

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine pomegranate juice, lemon juice and sugar. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and let simmer uncovered, stirring often, until desired consistency. This takes about 20 to 30 minutes.

The final result: Very thick and sticky.

When finished, the juice will be reduced by half to two-thirds, depending on desired thickness. The molasses will cover the back of a spoon like a thick syrup.

Store covered in the refrigerator.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipes recipe Mediterranean climate gardening preserving Sacramento cooking backyard produce produce management DIY pomegranates fall fruit

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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