I love being able to take my time making food. And I like supporting the local Farmer’s Market, small local businesses (but of course, what with us running The New Deli!), locally-sourced foods, etc. The whole Slow Food Movement thing is awesome. (BTW, it’s not a movement devoted to crock-pot cooking, in case you wondered!)
Today, I worked on seeding some of our many pomegranates. It’s that time of year. And although I enjoy the convenience of store-bought pomegranate juice (even this powder
So I was seeding pomegranates today. I don’t think there’s any real fast way to get the seeds out. Talk about a slow food movement!
I’ve tried a number of things. Someone said, “Just press and roll the pomegranate around on the counter, then stick a straw in it and suck the juice out. Wow- that sounded like a great idea! Alas, it was too good to be true. It really wasn’t all that effective.
For the last few years, I was still trying to save time, so I tried another approach. I put on the gloves, scored and broke apart all the fruits, added them to a 5 gallon bucket, and mashed ’em with a sledge hammer. (A large, clean rock would also do.) They juiced up, and I strained the whole thing in a giant colander, into jars for storage. That yielded me a decent amount of juice; a pretty quick method if you’re inundated with pomegranates. You can do a whole lot of fruits, and make pomegranate juice ice cubes, for future smoothies.
This year I used the more traditional bowl o’ water method. Warm water’s a good idea, since fruit-stained hands are less likely in warm warm (cold water sets fruit stains). I rolled ’em around a bit to loosen the seeds some, and cut the tops and bottoms off the fruits. I scored them into sixths (trying not to cut into the fruit and bruise the seeds). I broke them into sections underwater and broke the seeds apart from the pith. The pith floats and the seeds sink- perfect!
I strained the seeds, then set them on screen-racks to dry. (Paper towels could work too, on cookie sheets.) Once dried, they can be frozen, or stored in the fridge for 5 days or so. Another (healthy) way to “store” them is to turn them into pomegranate kefir, as follows:
Pomegranate Kefir
To blender, add: > approx. 1 quart pomegranate seeds > approx. 1 quart kefir water (strained from grains after a day or two of brewing)
Blend the seeds and kefir, letting seeds settle. Strain off liquid into kefir bottles; let ferment a day or two, until bubbly. Refrigerate when done!
