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Pomegranates can add Mediterranean touch year-round

Recipe: Pomegranate molasses a versatile way to preserve flavor

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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.

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That's about 1/4 cup arils in the dish.

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

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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.

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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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Garden Checklist for week of June 8

Get out early to enjoy those nice mornings. There’s plenty to keep gardeners busy:

* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal or rock phosphate can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.

* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. Inconsistent soil moisture can encourage blossom-end rot.

* It’s not too late to transplant tomatoes, peppers or eggplant.

* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.

* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.

* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias.

* It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.

* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.

* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.

* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.

* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.

* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.

* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.

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