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When I was a kid, one of my favourite books was the wonderful Almost Everything There Is To Know, by the incomparable Tim Hunkin. I loved this book, and I read it from cover to cover several times. I distinctly remember one part about advertising, and the dangers of consumer research: I have tried to bear this in mind throughout my life, and I’ve tried my best to try everything I can before pronouncing an opinion on it. Many of you will have become familiar with this idea at an early age, when reading the Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham. When this competition came up, this principle was challenged. My immediate reaction to seeing Battle Pomegranate was “oh no, I don’t like pomegranates” Then I reflected on this reaction, and realised that I hadn’t really tried them: I have been to a few restaurants where there has been a scattering of pomegranate inappropriately added to an otherwise delicious meal, and thought “this meal would be better without the pomegranate”, but that’s about it. For me, this is what ICSA is for: since joining this forum, I feel that my cooking has come on a lot, and it is in large part thanks to challenging my prejudices, opening myself up to new ideas and new ways of doing things. Rarely a day goes by when someone on GWS isn’t challenging the notion of “we’ve always done it this way” and suggesting a better way to do things. Sometimes, new isn’t always better: I sincerely regret destroying my oven with an abortive aquafaba, but most of the time, it is healthy to challenge your assumptions and try something new. With this philosophy in mind, I went to my grocer and we haggled over 20 pomegranates. I say we haggled, what in fact happened was I got a lesson in stonewalling, while for five minutes he repeated the phrase “the price is the price” and I failed to get a discount.  Until this challenge, I had never worked with pomegranates, so I decided to Google the best techniques and test them out. Method 1: Underwater extraction I cut my pomegranate in half by running a knife around the edge and tearing it open, and then put it in a large bowl of water. Keeping the whole thing underwater the entire time, I tore into the fruit, pulling the arils out and allowing the pith to float to the top.  This worked nicely. My notes at the time are that it was quite satisfying and that there was no loss of flavour (which I was initially concerned about) by submerging everything in water. The thing I learned from this was also not to use just cold water, as it became quite unpleasant and painful after a while. Method 2: Spoon whacking Same as before, running a knife around the edge of the fruit, but this time, using the back of a wooden spoon to get the arils out, by giving it several hard whacks.  This was loving awful. I ended up with stray arils all over the place and the end product still had bloody loads of pith in it, so I had to wash it anyway. A total waste of time, and very messy. Method 3: Segmentation This was the method I was most excited about. I cut a small square from the top of the fruit, and used that window to view the segments.  I could see where the pith lines were, and using a knife I could split the fruit into segments along those lines and theoretically get the arils out nice and neatly.  However, as incredibly satisfying as this process was, it was completely poo poo and I still had loads of stray pith and had to put the arils underwater again. It was clear to me that the first method was the best, so this is what I did for all my remaining pomegranates. Before I could start any proper cooking, I also needed to juice loads of my pomegranates. Pomegranate juice This was where I learned how much juice a pomegranate produced: I blitzed my arils with a stick blender, then pushed the whole lot through a sieve. Last year, I used to use this technique for a lot of things, and did so with a spoon, a lot of elbow grease and patience. But I received a wonderful gadget for Christmas which I would recommend to everyone!  I poured the juice into the strainer, and turned the handle a few times, and was left with some lovely juice, and a load of horrible pulp.  OK, now we were done with learning how to process the fruits, it was time to think about the menu. Apéritif: Pomegranate sidecar Starter: Fried halloumi, cucumber, pomegranate salad Soup: Sweet potato pomegranate molasses soup Palate cleanser: Pomegranate sgroppino Fish: Scallop, fennel purée, pomegranate chutney Entrée: Rack of pomegranate marinated lamb, jewelled couscous, pomegranate port reduction Dessert: Lemon panna cotta, pomegranate jelly, dark chocolate pomegranate bark Digestif: Pomegranate negroni We had our menu, I had invited guests, all that remained was to actually start cooking! Once I decided on my menu, I juiced a LOT of pomegranates, portioned out the juice and froze it, so I wouldn’t spend the entire time my guests were here juicing, and could concentrate on the much more glam cooking… Apéritif: Pomegranate sidecar  750 ml vodka 2 pomegranates 1 lime, zested I mixed the ingredients and transferred them to two sterilised bottles  These bottles were stored in a cool dark cupboard for 10 days, at which point the pomegranate had infused a lot of colour and flavour into the vodka  This I strained into one bottle and set aside until my guests arrived, keeping the leftover vodka infused arils in the freezer for another course   1 part pomegranate vodka 1 part triple sec 1 part lemon juice Shake over ice, garnish each glass with a twist of lemon and serve  These were absolutely delicious. Pomegranatey, citrusy, refreshing. I had to make two rounds, they were so well received. The perfect start to the meal. Starter: Fried halloumi, cucumber, pomegranate salad 250g halloumi, cut into fries 75g plain flour 3 tbsp za’atar 1 cucumber, roughly quartered and diced Arils from 1 pomegranate 140g Greek yoghurt 1 clove of garlic, minced 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp olive oil A handful of mint, minced So here, I completely forgot to take pictures of the majority of this, I only found a picture of the halloumi…  I dusted the halloumi with the flour and za’atar and deep fried it until crispy and golden, I made a yoghurt vinaigrette and tossed the cucumber and pomegranate in it, and that was it!   It was at this point that the guests hit our first point of disagreement. I thought the halloumi and the pomegranate were great together. Tricky to eat, but the cucumber, yoghurt and halloumi worked well. Two of the four of us agreed on this, the other two felt that the pomegranate was an unwelcome addition to the deliciousness of the halloumi. As evidenced by this revealing shot of my wife’s plate after she had finished…  This was to become something of a theme of the evening, the two people who beforehand professed an antipathy towards pomegranate saying that they still didn’t really like pomegranate when whole arils were present, but that when it was an incorporated part of the whole, they enjoyed it. Soup: Sweet potato pomegranate molasses soup First, I made some pomegranate molasses  4 pomegranates 50g sugar 1 tbsp lemon juice I juiced the pomegranates and simmered with the sugar and lemon juice on low for an hour or two, until the syrup was thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, and hold its shape when I ran my finger through to taste it  I transferred the considerably reduced liquid to a small jar and set aside for later  When I was ready to start, I assembled my soup ingredients  2 sweet potatoes 1 leek 1 red chili 1 tsp sumac 2 tomatoes Chicken stock Pomegranate molasses I roughly chopped the vegetables, tossed in a little oil with salt and pepper and roasted at 180C for 1h30m The vegetables were then chucked in a pan with a little frozen concentrated stock, the sumac and a big glob of molasses, simmered for a bit and pushed through a sieve  To serve, I poured into twee teacups and topped with a little swirl of warmed molasses   This was, again, very good. Warming, spicy, the sweet citrusy tang of the molasses cutting through the sweet potato nicely. The two people who didn’t like pomegranate expressed some doubts, but I think if I had not told them there was pomegranate involved, they would have enjoyed the soup and not commented! After that rather stridently flavoured dish, we needed something to refresh ourselves before the far more delicate fish course… Palate cleanser: Pomegranate sgroppino That morning, I made pomegranate sorbet  100g caster sugar Juice of 3 pomegranates 2 egg whites I love making anything with egg whites in it. It’s just magical. You start with an innocuous yellowish liquid…  And you end up with edible clouds of fluffy amazingness, in this case whipped to soft peaks  I folded the chilled juice into the egg whites, and poured the whole lot into my ice cream maker, where it did its thing for 40m  I then put this in the freezer for a few hours to get a bit more solid, until we were ready for our palate cleanser  Pomegranate sorbet Pomegranate vodka Prosecco Per glass, you want a scoop of sorbet  Then a shot of vodka  Then top up with prosecco   Aaaaaaaaaaaah, the memory of these is making me happy. They were so good. I think I overdid it on the egg whites, but it made them fun. There’s something really joyous about drinking these, they’re fizzy, sweet, refreshing, foamy and above all, pink. Very hard not to enjoy yourself when drinking a pink fizzy drink… Palates cleansed, it was time for a tiny pretentious fish course! Fish: Scallop, fennel purée, pomegranate chutney I began by making a chutney  2 pomegranates 1 chili Garlic Ginger 1 small apple, peeled and diced 200g muscovado sugar 2 tsp red wine vinegar First, I threw the ginger, garlic, chopped chili, salt and peppercorns into my pestle and mortar and pounded into a fine paste  I threw everything into a pan and cooked down until it was thick and the liquid was syrupy  Then, I made a fennel purée  1 fennel bulb (keep the fronds for garnish) 10g butter 150ml double cream I fried the fennel in butter for 5m, then added the cream, brought to a scald and simmered for 15m until the fennel was soft Then I blended it up and pushed it through a sieve The final element was the actual scallops, which were cooked very simply  Scallops Butter I sealed the scallops in a vacuum bag on the lowest setting with some butter, salt and pepper, so as not to compress them too much  These were cooked sous vide for 30m at 52C, after which I patted them dry and seared with a blowtorch  Then it was a simple matter of layering up our fish course! First, fennel purée  Then, a seared scallop  Finally, a little scoop of chutney gently thrown in the vague direction of the top of the scallop  Then, a final snipping of fennel fronds over the top, and we were ready to serve!  This was another course that caused controversy: everyone was in agreement that the scallop was very nice, the fennel was good with it (I personally thought it needed a bit more aniseed flavour), but one of the pomegranate-dislikers was again in favour of not having the pomegranate on there. I thought it was lovely, the pomegranate had a much less citrusy, more rich and caramelised flavour, which went well with the scallop, and I especially appreciated the texture of the chutney against the smooth purée and soft scallop. OK, at this point, everyone was pretty much done with tiny things, and wanted something a bit more substantial. Delicious pretentious small dishes are all well and good, but at some point, you need something a bit bigger, if only to soak up the enormous quantities of booze that were being consumed. Entrée: Rack of pomegranate marinated lamb, jewelled couscous, pomegranate port reduction The very first thing I did was marinade a rack of lamb  2 pomegranates 3 racks of lamb Garlic Bay leaves Thyme I simmered the pomegranate juice with the garlic and herbs, and allowed to cool, then covered the lamb in it This was put in the fridge for two days, occasionally shuggled around to make sure that the lamb was actually getting even exposure to the juice  When it came out, it was an extremely unappetising shade of purple, I vacuum sealed the racks and cooked sous vide at 57C for 2h  As is always the case with sous vided meat, it looked pretty unappealing, but I browned the racks in hot pan and set them aside. I deglazed the pan with a little of the leftover juice and some port, and thickened with a tiny bit of flour, so we would have a sauce Alongside this, we had jewelled couscous  300g couscous 400ml chicken stock 50g spring onions 2 pomegranates Block of feta, cut into cubes Handful of flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped Handful of coriander, roughly chopped Juice of 1 lemon 2 tbsp of olive oil I love making couscous, it’s so easy. I combined the herbs, onion, cheese and pomegranate and poured the stock over the couscous. Covered and set aside, the couscous absorbed all of the liquid, and then I mixed in the pomegranate mixture Not pictured, I also chopped up some roots I got in my farm basket and roasted them for a bit of interest on the plate I spooned on a little sauce, put my couscous down in a rough line, sliced the lamb and scattered some root vegetables over the sauce, as well as mint sauce I made with some leftover mint, molasses and a splash of red wine vinegar  By this point, I was pretty tipsy, which I think goes towards my slightly lacklustre plating, and my decision to take a closeup shot of the lamb that I appear to have at with a blunt spoon, rather than the more neat slices. We play the cards we’re dealt, I guess. Saturday me didn’t give a gently caress about Tuesday me writing this up…  This was great. The pomegranate worked really well against the cheese, the couscous was a great vehicle for the strong flavours, the lamb was tender and delicious. I questioned how much the marinade flavoured the lamb, but the more sensitive palates around the room claimed they could definitely taste it. This was probably the first course where the pomegranate-dislikers actively enjoyed the presence of the pomegranate, which I took as a win. We were finally there, we had reached the point that I hoped everyone could agree on, where using fruit was appropriate for all palates. Dessert: Lemon panna cotta, pomegranate jelly, dark chocolate pomegranate bark First, I made the lemon panna cotta  5 leaves of gelatine 600ml double cream 150ml milk 200g caster sugar Zest and juice of 2 lemons I brought the milk, cream and sugar to a scald, and added the lemon juice and zest While this was simmering and stirring away, I bloomed the gelatine in cold water, squeezed it out and added it to the milk and cream mixture Once this had dissolved, I strained the liquid into 4 glasses and refrigerated overnight  The next day, I made some jelly  3 pomegranates 60ml boiling water 4 leave of gelatine 1 tsp sugar I warmed the juice, sugar and water, and added bloomed gelatine. The mixture was cooled to room temperature, poured over the panna cotta and put in the fridge overnight  While all this was setting up, I made chocolate bark  200g dark chocolate 20g crystallised ginger 1 pomegranate I did one of my favourite things after pushing things through sieves: I melted the chocolate in a bain-marie  I then stirred in the ginger and half the pomegranate and poured out over baking paper, then I chucked on the remaining pomegranate  While still sticky, I pressed with another sheet of baking paper and left to cool to room temperature, scored into portions and transferred to the fridge to cool overnight. When ready to serve, I got everything out, and garnished with a few frozen vodka soaked arils    This was well-received. Both layers were firmer than I would have liked, but this was a concession to others in the group, who have all told me before that they prefer panna cotta and jellies to be pretty firm. Having inflicted a whole meal based on a food they were at best ambivalent about, I thought the least I could do was accede to their wishes for dessert… It was just lovely, the lemon and pomegranate went well together, the powerful boozy pops of the garnish were a great textural element, the bark was satisfying and bitter, while also having little burst of juicy flavour. It was just great. Having boozed our way through the dinner so far, it would have been remiss not to indulge one last time… I like all my meals to be dovetailed by an apéritif and digestif, and this was no exception. Digestif: Pomegranate negroni I know many people like to have a sweet cocktail after dinner, but for me, I like my digestifs like I like my women: bitter and cold  1.5 parts gin 1.5 parts Campari 1 part pomegranate juice ½ part vermouth Orange peel to garnish I shook the ingredients over ice, poured into glasses with ice and a twist of peel and then took a very blurry photo  I managed to pull it together for the close up shot, though  As an end to the meal, this was really great. Bitter, strong, pomegranatey without being overly so. I love Campari, so I was really great with this. The two pomegranate-dislikers both said they would have preferred it without the pomegranate, but I think it added a certain seasonal charm, it felt appropriate. We were all still friends at the end, and they have all invited themselves for the next one, so it can’t have been all bad!  So, to summarise the events that led to me and my wife spending Sunday clutching our head and groaning… Apéritif: Pomegranate sidecar Starter: Fried halloumi, cucumber, pomegranate salad Soup: Sweet potato pomegranate molasses soup Palate cleanser: Pomegranate sgroppino Fish: Scallop, fennel purée, pomegranate chutney Entrée: Rack of pomegranate marinated lamb, jewelled couscous, pomegranate port reduction Dessert: Lemon panna cotta, pomegranate jelly, dark chocolate pomegranate bark Digestif: Pomegranate negroni Overall, I think this was a success. We certainly started with a strong headwind against pomegranates, but I enjoyed the pomegranate addition to every course, and the people who started the dinner with an aversion to pomegranate in all its forms came away having enjoyed some of the food. No-one was left hungrily picking at crisps afterwards, and everyone was certainly very merry, so as dinner parties go, it was a good one. I am not sure I would make a meal using 20 pomegranates again, but I will certainly be revisiting some of these courses, incorporating pomegranates in more meals and not shying away from it because it’s unfamiliar, which is always my goal at the end of these challenges. All that remained for me to do after this was clear up my bombsite of a kitchen. 
Scientastic fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Feb 13, 2022 |
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Feb 8, 2022 13:39
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| # ? May 4, 2024 12:11 |
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Mazel tov!! What an awesome menu - and I don’t even like some of the ingredients you used. (Scallops, I’m looking at you, you jiggly fuckers.) It was beautiful!
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Feb 8, 2022 18:19
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Winner.
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Feb 9, 2022 05:00
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Just master class as always, Scientastic. Man I want some couscous now.
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Feb 9, 2022 21:27
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How much do you think the haters object to the pomegranate texture (namely, the little seed in each aril) as opposed to the flavor? I love pomegranate but I can 100% understand someone rebelling at those crunchy seeds.
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Feb 11, 2022 11:51
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TychoCelchuuu posted:How much do you think the haters object to the pomegranate texture (namely, the little seed in each aril) as opposed to the flavor? I love pomegranate but I can 100% understand someone rebelling at those crunchy seeds. It’s totally the little seed in each aril. The drinks, jelly, sorbet, etc were well received, and second helpings were sometimes had. The seeds in the arils were a constant source of complaint. I get it to some extent, they are a little bit annoying, but they also provide a nice contrasting texture. The fish course in particular would have had a very uninteresting mouthfeel without the chutney.
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Feb 11, 2022 14:28
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Amazing as always, Scientastic!
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Feb 11, 2022 14:48
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This was a stellar entry. Please tell me you didn’t actually knock up 3 KG of couscous for four people.
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Feb 13, 2022 15:28
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| # ? May 4, 2024 12:11 |
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That would have delighted my chickens, but no. Making a tenfold error makes me quite happy though, it fills me with lab nostalgia.
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Feb 13, 2022 17:47
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