For fans, pomegranate season too short

The limited seasonal availability of pomegranates can be seen as both a blessing and a curse – the former, according to Megan Romano, while Doug Taylor sees the other side.

"When things come and go, you feel like you’re actually living within seasons," said Romano, chef/owner of Chocolate & Spice on West Sahara Avenue. For that reason, she especially appreciates the few things that we can’t get year-round, such as Concord grapes and pomegranates.

"For me, pomegranate season is too short," said Taylor, who runs the pastry programs at Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s local restaurants Carnevino, B&B Ristorante and Otto and also is an instructor in the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s Producer to Chef Program.

But they definitely agree on this: Like anybody else who appreciates a good aril (commonly known as a seed, they’re the juice sacs of the fruit), they enjoy pomegranates while they can.

And when might that be? According to the Pomegranate Council in Sonoma, Calif., the red globular fruits are available in stores from August through December.

But here’s what might be a little-known fact: Pomegranates grow very well in the Las Vegas Valley.

"They are great desert trees," Taylor said. "They don’t need a lot of water, and need just a decent amount of drainage."

The pomegranate is, by nature, a bush, but it can be pruned into a tree shape.

"They’re really versatile and really beautiful trees," Taylor said. "I have them like a hedge in front of my house."

The key to picking a ripe pomegranate off the tree is to wait until the skin starts to crack – a trick Taylor said he learned from farmers in Arizona and at the Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Orchard in North Las Vegas. Too many people, he said, pick them before they’re ripe.

The diversity of pomegranates can be surprising.

"All the different varieties are amazing – at the orchard and throughout the city," Taylor said. "You’ll come across pink ones, white, red. I’ve seen orange pomegranates."

Recently, orchard staff and volunteers have been experimenting with a variety that doesn’t have seeds in the arils.

"Last year we dried them out and made raisins," he said. "They worked out perfectly. It was really amazing."

(Those trees can be ordered at the orchard at 4600 Horse Drive, call 257-5555; orders are due by Dec. 1, he said, with bare-root varieties arriving in early February).

But more common varieties of pomegranates can be found right now in most any local market, and Romano and Taylor said they like to use them in a variety of ways.

"I love the texture," Romano said. "There’s some surprise element, where you have that little bit of tartness" after biting into the aril and releasing the juice.

She’s used them in cookies – white-chocolate macadamia nut cookies with lime zest. In pound cake, with tea leaves and pomegranates providing two levels of complementing flavors. In breakfast muffins, and rolled into a croissant pinwheel.

"And of course salads," she said – "a nice frisee salad with sauteed pears, candied walnuts, pomegranates and pomegranate vinaigrette."

Or she’ll put pomegranates on top of brie with fresh honeycomb – "baking it so it’s nice and soupy and soft, and dipping bread in there."

For a recent cooking class she marinated flank steak in a teriyaki mixture with honey, scallions and fresh garlic, and served it sliced, atop a salad with an orange-pomegranate vinaigrette and pomegranate seeds.

"We will puree them up and use them as a sorbet," Taylor said. "You can also use them as a puree and make a cocktail out of it.

"And it goes great with grilled pork and whatnot in a salad with wild arugula."

And let’s not forget the health benefits: the Pomegranate Council notes that the fruit is high in vitamin C and potassium, low in calories and a good source of fiber.

"They’re not in one compartment," Romano said. "They cross over well. I use them in all sorts of things. It’s one of those great seasonal ingredients that’s fun to see when it comes on the market."

POMEGRANATE, BEET AND BLOOD ORANGE SALAD

4 medium beets

3 tablespoons vegetable oil (divided use)

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ cup blood orange juice (from about 1 blood orange) (see notes)

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (see notes)

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

3 blood oranges, peeled, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices (see notes)

1 cup pomegranate seeds (from one 11-ounce pomegranate)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place beets in roasting pan and toss with 1 tablespoon oil, salt and pepper. Add ¼ cup water. Cover pan with foil; roast beets until knife easily pierces center, about 50 minutes. Cool. Peel beets and cut into 1/3-inch-thick wedges.

Whisk orange juice, pomegranate molasses, vinegar and remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large bowl to blend. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper.

Place onion in small bowl; cover with cold water. Soak onion 1 minute, drain, and squeeze dry in kitchen towel. Add beets, onion, orange slices and pomegranate seeds to vinaigrette in bowl; toss. Season salad with salt and pepper.

Notes: Pomegranate molasses is a thick syrup available at Middle Eastern markets, some supermarkets and by mail from Adriana’s Caravan (adrianascaravan.com). If blood oranges are unavailable, simply use the sweetest oranges you can find.

Serves 4 as a first course.

– Recipe from Bon Appetit magazine

CHICKEN WITH POMEGRANATE AND WALNUTS

2¾-pound fryer chicken, cleaned and cut into pieces

½ teaspoon poultry seasoning

3 tablespoons shortening

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 teaspoons butter

2 teaspoons tomato sauce

2 cups walnuts, finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 cup fresh pomegranate juice

1 teaspoon sugar (if needed)

Sprinkle chicken with poultry seasoning and saute in shortening until light brown; set aside.

In a large pot, saute the onion in butter until golden brown. Add tomato sauce and saute for a few minutes. Add walnuts and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add 3½ cups water, remaining seasonings, lemon juice and pomegranate juice. Cover and let cook on low for about 35 minutes. Taste the sauce and add sugar, if needed. Arrange browned chicken pieces in the sauce, cover and let simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve over white rice.

Serves 4 to 6.

– Recipe from the Pomegranate Council

POMEGRANATE-GINGER MUFFINS

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

1¼ cups pomegranate seeds

1 cup milk

1 large egg

About ¼ cup butter or margarine, melted and cooled

In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in ginger, lemon peel and pomegranate seeds. Make a well in the center.

In a measuring cup, blend milk, egg and butter. Pour liquid all at once into well. Stir just until batter is moistened; it will be lumpy.

Spoon batter into 12 (2½-inch-wide) or 24 (1¾-inch-wide) buttered muffin cups, filling each almost to the rim. Sprinkle with 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar.

Bake in a preheated 425-degree oven until lightly browned, about 16 minutes for large muffins, 13 minutes for small. Remove muffins from pan at once. Serve hot or set on a rack and serve warm or cool.

Makes 1 dozen 2½-inch or 2 dozen 1¾-inch muffins.

– Recipe from Sunset magazine

POMEGRANATE POUND CAKE

¾ cup sugar

6 tablespoons butter or stick margarine

2 large eggs

1 large egg white

¾ cup low-fat buttermilk

2 teaspoons grated lime rind

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon baking soda

2½ cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup pomegranate seeds (about 1 large)

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat sugar and butter at medium-high speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 7 minutes). Add eggs and egg white, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine buttermilk, rind, vanilla and baking soda. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in pomegranate seeds.

Spoon batter into an 8-by-4-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 1 hour, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Serves 12.

– Recipe from Cooking Light

Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.