By Karen Hursh Graber, writing from Mexico
Late summer brings a bounty of pomegranates to Mexican markets, as eager chefs and home cooks get ready to prepare the national dish, chiles en nogada. A requisite element in this seasonal specialty, the pomegranate arils that adorn the chile represent the red color in the Mexican flag. Stalls piled high with the fruit usually display an open pomegranate to entice customers with the jewel-like interiors.
Originating in a colonial era convent in Puebla in the early 1800’s, the iconic chile creation is garnished with a fruit that was brought to the country three hundred years earlier. After the Spanish conquest of 1521, Jesuit missionaries introduced the pomegranate to Mexico, where it is still cultivated in regions with distinct dry and rainy seasons, such as Tehuacan, Puebla, where inhabitants take pride in the quality of the fruit.
First cultivated in ancient Persia and brought to Spain by the Moors, pomegranates have been used in Mexico for nearly five hundred years, as a medicinal tea made from the flowers, as a garnish of bright arils, and as an ingredient in the country’s cuisine.
About the size of an orange, the pomegranate has a thick red skin and a fibrous, spongy membrane that surrounds the arils, sacs that contain seeds encased in a deep red juice. The arils and the juice extracted from them are the parts of the plant used in Mexican cuisine.
Creative Uses on Restaurant Menus
In Jalisco, where outdoor cooking is part of the region’s ranch culture, a pomegranate marinade is used to baste meat roasted over an open fire, and a salsa of pomegranate and ancho chiles serves as a table sauce and as a topping for simple chiles rellenos. Pomegranate marinades are also used to roast wild fowl, as well as domesticated poultry such as chicken and game hens.
While the juice of the pomegranate has traditionally been extracted using a manual juice press, it is now widely available throughout the year, bottled and sold in supermarkets on both sides of the border, providing inspiration to modern chefs. The arils are available from August through January, and some restaurants, such as La Casa de Frida in Merida, offer chiles en nogada for most of the year.
The juice has become a popular ingredient in margaritas and is used in an alcoholic punch, aged with aguardiente or silver tequila, and in aderezo de granada, pomegranate vinaigrette.
The arils make a juicy and colorful ingredient in salads and salsas, where they are frequently paired with pears, which are in season at the same time. The arils and the juice are both used in pomegranate guacamole.
Pomegranates and their juice have become extremely popular because of their antioxidant properties. Considered one of the “superfoods,” which are low in calories and high in nutritional value, the pomegranate is an attractive menu addition.
Savvy, modern customers, aware of the fruit’s health benefits, will be attracted to it in several offerings, including drinks, appetizers, salads, salsas, main dishes and desserts. Pomegranate vinaigrette is a good complement to several salads, including those that mix fruit such as apples, pears, or berries with leafy greens like spinach or romaine.
Pomegranate arils and sauces make tasty toppings for roasted meat, poultry, and fish. Try simply reducing the juice by half as a glaze for these or for baked fruit desserts.
Pomegranate juice and arils can be incorporated into a variety of desserts, including sorbets, granitas, fruit empanadas, and syrup for ice cream. For a simple and attractive dessert syrup, simmer two cups of bottled pomegranate juice with a half cup of sugar and two tablespoons of light corn syrup until the mixture is thick and glossy.
The ingredient called pomegranate molasses is actually a very concentrated syrup, available prepared and bottled, but more economical to make yourself by cooking four cups of pomegranate juice with a half cup of sugar until reduced to one fourth of its original volume.
Whipping a couple of tablespoons of this with a cup of heavy cream makes a colorful frosting for tres leches cake, and sprinkling it with pomegranate arils adds to the festive presentation. This is an impressive dessert as part of a special menu for parties that customers may book for anniversaries, quinceañeras, birthdays or showers. Let celebrants toast the occasion with pomegranate champagne cocktails.
Picking and Preparing the Fruit
When buying fresh pomegranates, look for ones that are round and heavy for their size. Avoid fruit that is bruised or cut. Store pomegranates in a cool, dry place. They can be refrigerated for up to two months. When working with pomegranates, avoid carbon steel utensils and pots, since the juice may discolor them. Use bottled, pasteurized pomegranate juice in recipes where you want to keep the bright color, since fresh juice may turn brown when cooked.
To extract juice from fresh pomegranates, cut the fruit in half crosswise and use a lever-type juicer like the kind juice vendors use in Mexican mercados, although the sale of bottled juice usually makes this unnecessary. A better use of the fresh fruit is extracting the arils. To avoid stains, cut the fruit into quarters without removing the skin. Place the quarters in a bowl of water and roll out the arils with your fingertips. Discard everything else, drain the water, and use the arils as desired.
Get creative with pomegranates. The color of the juice and the attractive appearance of the arils present unlimited opportunities for garnishes and sauces, and for adding to cocktails and other beverages. Mix a pomegranate cham- pagne cocktail, using Mexican orange liqueur, and toast your creative new ideas for using this popular fruit.
RECIPES:
See Graber’s recipes for:
Margarita de Granada: Pomegranate Margarita
Salsa de Pera y Granada: Pear and Pomegranate Salsa
Pollitos Tiernos en Salsa de Granada y Miel: Game Hens in Pomegranate and Honey Sauce
Filetes de Pescado al Horno con Salsa de Granada: Baked fish filets with Pomegranate Sauce