Bay
CrossingsCuisine
Pomegranate Glaze & Gravy
By
Mary Swift-Swan
When bright red bows appear on
lamp posts it is like a checkered flag to many to shop for those on
their Holiday list. Its Pomegranates that are a cooks signal to get
excited that the "Holidays are here". Fresh Pomegranates
can be used on so many meats that the possibilities seem endless.
What the glaze does is add a unique semi-sweet flavor. Combining
sugar with pomegranates can form a moisture barrier while cooking or
can be used as with a little vinegar or walnuts for a sauce that
brings out truly unique and complementary flavors to any meat.
Capay Farms of the Ferry Market
Plaza has a brimming basket of fresh Pomegranates that are ripe and
ready to help you create memorable meals for friends and family.
Thaddeus Barsotti who is proudly holding the display basket, owns
Capay Farms with his 3 brothers. The family started the Farm in
1976. The brothers four began full management in 2000. The Ferry
Building is their first storefront. They continue to participate in
Farmers Markets in Davis, 3 in Marin county plus Berkeley and Walnut
Creek. The brothers also provide "Farm Fresh to You"
organic produce delivery service. They can be reached at (415)
391-2223 at the Ferry Building or www.farmfreshtoyou.com.
Pomegranate
Glaze and Gravy for the Holidays is shown here with Turkey, but the
principals are the same if cooking a leg of lamb, ham, roast chicken
or a pork loin. The ingredients are so simple that it is easy to
make a truly special meal. What makes the gravy savory and delicious
is also very simple. Simply use the juice from the roasting pan to
combine with remaining glaze. The pomegranate glaze flavor on the
meat is intensified and complimented by the gravy.
Preparation time 5 min.
Cooking time 5 min for glaze, 12- 15 min
for gravy.
Pomegranate Glaze
4 ripe Pomegranates juiced
2 T unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
Pomegranate Gravy
Juice from the roasting pan, less fat
1/4 cup white wine that you would enjoy
drinking
1/2 tsp cornstarch |
While the meat is in a hot oven,
searing in the juice, after the side dishes are prepared to go into
the oven, bring out a juicer. Hand or electric juicers both work
just fine. (If no juicer, peel the pomegranate. Separate the seeds.
Put the seeds into a strainer and with the back of a spoon crush the
seeds to release the juice.) The goal is 1-1/2 cup of glaze or more
for Turkey. The capay pomegranates, with an electric juicer,
produced better than a 1/3 cup juice per fruit. Unsweetened
Pomegranate juice can be found bottled in Mediterranean Markets but
fresh is best when available.
Slowly heat the mixture on medium
heat until the butter melts. Stir frequently. It is cloudy at first.
The glaze is ready when the butter and sugar fully clarify. The
glaze turns a deep clear red. Immediately reduce heat to low. It can
scorch once clarified because of the quantity of sugar so keep warm
at the lowest setting. Using a turkey baster, baste the turkey
during the last 1/4 of the total cooking time. The Holiday
Pomegranate glaze mixes the unique flavors of the pomegranate with
the herbs and meat juice that collect in the bottom of the roasting
pan.
When the turkey is done, remove it
to a platter to ‘rest’ tented. While the meat is resting, stir
to loosen drippings on the bottom of the pan to get all the herbs
and intensely flavored drippings mixed into the juice. Pour the
juice and drippings into a separator, or pour into a tall somewhat
narrow container and spoon off the fat when it separates. Transfer
the juice and drippings to the glaze pot using the remaining glaze
as a base. Add the small amount of wine to deglaze and stir. Bring
to a slow boil at medium heat and stir frequently allowing to reduce
until all the other steps are made to finish the meal.
While someone is carving the
Turkey, or just before you do, finish the gravy. Using a cup with a
round bottom, spoon in a small amount of the warm liquid. Add the
cornstarch. With the back of the spoon mash any hard beads and stir
till smooth. Add more liquid until moving freely. Add into the
gravy, (this technique works with flour or any other thickener of
choice) and stir frequently for 5 minutes until it reaches desired
thickness. If it becomes too thick, add wine or water. Delicious
poured over the meat, or starch dishes.
Turkey
was chosen to use with the glaze for our readers because it such a
festive meal. Turkey to some is a real challenge and others have
deferred eating turkey other than for Thanksgiving because too often
the beast meat becomes dry easily and yet the dark meat ends up too
rare. To meet this challenge there are cooking
techniques
plus and our pomegranate glaze can help.
Heat the oven to 450 degrees
Armed with Tinfoil, roasting pan, mortar
and pestle for herbs
1 12-16 lb Turkey
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
2 T Kosher Course Salt
2 tsp Fresh ground pepper
Herbs of choice,
1 T Fresh (or 1 tsp of dried) Thyme
remove leaves
1 T Fresh (or 1 tsp of dried) Sage or
Savory, finely slice
1 T Fresh (or 1 tsp of dried) Basil
finely slice
Dash Fresh Chives cut into fine pieces
with scissors
1/2 cup? Water till pan is1/8" deep
1/4 cup white wine you would enjoy
drinking
Loosely stuff for flavor
1 Sweet onion, cut to large pieces
1 Gala Apple
4-6 Cloves Garlic
Herbs whole pieces of herbs used for spice rub. |
Gently
mash the herbs to release the flavors. Mix the herbs with the stick
of unsalted butter to form an herb rub. After rinsing and drying
with paper towels. Apply spice and butter rub first under the skin,
in the cavity and finally on the skin.
Turning
the breast down for the 3/4 of the duration of cooking can imprint
unsightly lines in the breast meat. A compromise is to begin cooking
in a very hot oven which sears the outside keeping the juices in the
meat. This works for most meat, fish or poultry. For turkey, putting
water
into
the pan uses steam to help cook the dark meat faster and to not let
drippings burn. To trap steam, prevent burn and spot marks on the
turkey breast, cap it with an aluminum tent.
Start the turkey in the 450 degree
oven for the first 1/2 of the cooking time with the water and wine
in the bottom of the pan, Turn the oven down to 325 degrees. In the
last hour of cooking time, partly remove the tent and every 10-15
minutes, baste the turkey with the pomegranate glaze. When the
turkey registers 165 degrees at the deepest part of the breast meat,
not touching bone, it is done. Remove from the oven, transfer it to
a platter, cover with the tin foil tent and let it rest for 20
minutes before carving.
Side suggestions can be seen on
the website,
www.baycrossings.com.
Happy Holidays for all of us at
Bay Crossings.
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