You only need 3 ingredients to make this Middles Eastern essential sauce - pomegranate molasses. Wonderful combination of tang and sweet of the molasses makes it a great dressing for salads, roasted meats and vegetables. You can even drizzle on desserts!
4cupspomegranate juicefresh juice extracted at home
2tablespoonlemon juicefreshly squeezed
½cupgranulate sugar
Instructions
This recipe uses fresh homemade pomegranate juice. Feel free to use store bought juice if you aren’t up to spending few extra minutes to make your own juice.
To make your own pomegranate juice –
Using a paring knife dig out the crown. Remove crown and discard it.
Score pomegranate in the middle running knife all the way around.
Using both hands carefully tear both halves apart.
Take each half and tear it apart into smaller sections.
Separate the arils by prying it loose from it’s rind and collect it in a bowl.
Collect only the ruby red arils, discard all rind.
Now place all pomegranate arils in a juicer and pulse just enough until the red arils are broken.IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT pulse pomegranate too much that the hard white bitter parts are broken and blended into the juicy red parts. Those are bitter bits that you want to leave out and discard.
Sieve through fine sieve mesh to separate out the bitter hard white parts collecting only the juice.
Fresh homemade pomegranate juice is ready to be used to make molasses.
To make molasses -
In a sauce pan pour 4 cups of pomegranate juice, 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice and ½ cup sugar.
With constant stirring bring juice mix to gentle boil on medium heat until sugar dissolves completely.
Once sugar is completely dissolved, reduce heat just enough to maintain a simmer.
Keep stirring and scrapping the sides of the sauce pan and continue to cook until the molasses reduces to 1 to 1 ¼ cup.
Dip a spoon in the molasses; if it forms a coating on the spoon, you know molasses is ready.
Remove sauce pan from the heat and let it cool. The mix will be runny at this point. Don’t worry. It will thicken as it cools.
Allow molasses to cool at least for 40 minutes before transferring it into a jar.
Store it away in air tight container refrigerated for up to 6 months.
Use it in your favorite dish.
Notes
If making homemade pomegranate juice, remember to separate the ruby red arils properly from the rind. And pulse pomegranate seeds just enough to break juicy red parts and discard bitter white hard center bits. Don't over pulse the juice.
Every pomegranate varies in taste. Each one has different acidity and sweetness levels. Depending on that you may want to adjust the amount of sugar used.
If you overcook molasses it’ll burn. Maintain low heat just enough to maintain simmer and keep scraping the edges of the sauce pan regularly.
You know molasses if you get a coating on the spoon when dipped in it.
Beware, if you simmer too long, it will turn solid like hard candy when it cools. Remove pan from heat when molasses coats the spoon.
Nutrition: values mentioned below is for 1 cup (cup size approximately 230 ml)Nutritional Info – Please keep in mind that nutritional information provided is only a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.