Pomegranates are back in fashion again and the juice, especially, is freely available at most retail outlets – though at a premium. Sweetly astringent this Deutoronomy fruit is refreshing and this quick Sunday salad provides a really good end to your meal.  The pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is part of the Punicaceae family that has only one genus and two species. There is another one (P. protopunica Balf) found on the island of Socotra. Known as granada in Spain it orginated in Iran, later found in the Himalayas and has been grown through the ages in the Mediterranean region of Asia, Africa and Europe

used much the way we do today.  We read about it in the Egyptian mythology, the Old Testament and the Babylonian Talmud and it was carried by desert caravans for it’s juice. History tells of it’s voyage from Iran to central and southern India during the 1st century AD after which we read that it grew in Indonesia in 1416. Today it’s widely cultivated in India and drier areas of southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies and tropical and southern Africa. Significant cultivation takes place in Egypt, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, India, Burma and Saudi Arabia – it’s grown commercially in Israel on the coastal plains and in the Jordan Valley. The trees are hardy and they even grow in southern America, Bermuda and the Canary Islands.  The pomegrante is the size of a large orange with a hardy red and yellow skin. Inside there is spongy pith filled with seeds, which are, in turn, surrounded by a juicy, ruby red pulp. Eating a pomegranate can be a challenge because each pip has to be removed, the juicy fruit eaten and the pips thrown away but I have always eaten them pips and all. The easiest way to make a dessert is to extract the juice is by crushing the seeds through a sieve with the back of a ladle and use it to in mousse, fool and iced desserts. Many Persian and Middle Eastern recipes call for pomegranate molasses, a thick, sweet-and-sour liquid that gives a pleasant sharpness to meaty stews. Try it with aubergine. You’ll be surprised!

POMEGRANATE CREAM

Ingredients

• 6 – 8 pomegranates
• 125 g sugar
• 50 g caster sugar
• 125 ml schnapps
• 325 ml whipping cream
• 3 egg whites

Method

• Shell the pomegranates, removing all the flesh.
• Place the fruit in a bowl.
• Mix the sugar and the schnapps together and pour over the fruit.
• Cover and refrigerate overnight or, at least, for a few hours.
• With the back of a ladle, strain the fruit into a bowl through a sieve, discarding the pips.
• Whisk the egg whites with the caster sugar in a clean bowl until quite firm but not hard, soft firm peaks is what you are looking for.
• Whisk the cream to soft peak stage and with the pomegranate juice mixture, a little at a time.
• Take a metal spoon and fold the whites into the cream mixture and pour into individual serving dishes.
• Chill and serve with biscuits, on mini pavlova or as is.