Pomegranate Molasses

I really like the look of pomegranates, I also love the flavour of those vibrant little seeds. It seems quite a decadent idea sitting their picking out each one with a pin while thinking about Persephone and her 6 months of homesickness.

I always felt very sorry for Persephone, as a child, she’s one of the abiding myth characters I remember. For one thing, Hades tricked her into eating the pomegranate seeds which reminded me of Edmund and the White Witch in Narnia. She sort of tricks him into eating Turkish Delight and then everything went wrong. This has long been a problematic part of the story for me and probably why I’ve never really liked Turkish Delight. I’m now digressing from Persephone and her pomegranate but the idea that Hades tricked her was a sore spot and also that she wanted to go home. I have read a lot of boarding school stories and I have been to boarding school and there is no emotion I understand more than homesickness.

All of that said, I’m also easily distracted and so find the process of eating a pomegranate with a pin a little tiresome and so am much relieved that the major supermarkets now produce packets of the seeds alone. This does rather remove the romance but it makes life faster!

I was making a lamb dish that I shall write up as soon as I remember to photograph it and it called for pomegranate molasses. I searched both online and in the various major supermarkets and speciality foodshops in Oxford and Liverpool and could not find it. Looking it up on the internet, I found a recipe for it and so am going to write it here. Not so much as that you’ll suddenly have an overwhelming desire to make it and drink it neat but when I started searching, I found so many amazing recipes that required it and there is nothing more stressful on a day of having friends for supper when you can’t find the essential ingredient so here’s a how-to!

It is painfully simple and I used POM pomegranate juice – available from many good shops – to make mine as it would be quicker, tidier and is already quite rich. It produces a thick sweet and sour syrup that suits rich cuts of meat such as shoulder of lamb and goose but it would also be amazing drizzled over a pavlova. The colour is amazing too!

vibrant seeds

Pomegranate Molasses

• 8 cups pomegranate juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. In a non stick pan, heat the three ingredients.
2. Bring to the boil and then allow to simmer for 45 minutes to an hour until the syrup is a molasses consistency.
3. Remember to stir it throughout as it’s very sticky and like jam can catch the bottom of the pan.
4. You can then store this in the fridge in a jam jar for up to a month.

I cut this out of the paper to make ages ago and it looks like a lovely use for the molasses: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/8637280/Fig-hazelnut-and-pomegranate-molasses-salad-recipe.html