What to do With Pomegranate Molasses [moved from Quebec board]

[rtms]

I actually have some pomegranate molassas. I bought it because it looked interesting but what do you all DO with pomegranate molassas??

[Stuffed Monkey]

Here's my favorite, also a NY Times receipe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/din...

I've liked a mahammara that I made too.

[BamiaWruz]

You use it to make the dressing for fatoush salad. Also when making stuffed grape leaves you add a bit into the cooking water.
Some people mix a bit with meat, in a spinach pie (the little triangular middle eastern ones) it goes well with the onions and spinach in the stuffing)
I love cooking green beans in it, either a side dish or a salad, it's all good!

Goes well in salad dressings, tahini based dressings too. Try doing roasted potatoes with pom molasses as a glaze like a potato/balsamic vinegar. I think you can basically substitute it in the place of balsamic vinegar.

[Shane Greenwood]

I saw a cooking demo by a Turkish chef and recommended it as a popular Turkish ingredient. Try searching some recipes. He put it in a bean salad as a finishing touch.

[chitodc]

i just ate at a Turkish place that did a fabulous flatbread mezze, with ground lamb and spices and pomegranate molasses. It completely elevated the dish.

[paulj]

I use it to taste when I want tartness with a sweet, fruity background. And where the dark color fits. So it could substitute for balsamic vinegar, and flavored vinegars (such as raspberry).

But start off using it sparingly (tea spoon at time) until you understand its character.

[BernalKC]

<lightbulb!> I wonder if this could be incorporated into fowl gravy to lighten / brighten the flavors?

My favorite turkey gravy uses a heavily reduced / caramelized fruit paste (pear/apple/persimmon) to add flavor depth and counter the gravy greasiness. I'm wondering if this could be a similar component, maybe with some other sweet element like a molasses? Might have to give that a test on a roast chicken before Thanksgiving... I've been in a bit of a rut with my turkey gravy for a few years now...

[BernalKC]

I can't say I've tried many of the recipes on this blog, but my first reaction to this question was "search Taste of Beirut", and sure enough, she uses this in many of her recipes:
http://www.tasteofbeirut.com/?s=pomeg...

[rtms]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I'm looking foward to trying out the molassas!

[brownie]

My favorite use for it, aside from maybe 1/4c in baked apples, is for Joan Nathan's Georgian Chicken.
Since I can't remember quite everything to paraphrase, I'll just link you to the NYT recipe: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/din...
Ok, so looking at this recipe, I see that it comes from the Glazers, not Joan Nathan, although she wrote the article that accompanied this back in '04 or '05.
Anyway it's awesome. A bit sweet, a bit tangy.
The main thing I'd very strongly suggest is that you let it simmer a LOT longer than the recipe says. I let this cook low and slow for probably 2hrs, sometimes more.

[cheesemaestro]

The recipe calls for pomegranate paste. Is that the same as pomegranate molasses or something thicker?

[brownie]

i just use whatvere pom syrup i have on hand and it works fine. plus i think its tamarind paste?

[paulj]

My limited research indicates that pomegranate molasses is just pomegranate juice cooked down till it is syrupy. Presumably it could be cooked to a paste stage as well. There are variations in the preferred taste and consistency between Lebonon (the only type I've had), and Iran.

In the NYT recipe, both the tamarind and the pomegranate are diluted. I wonder, though, about the equivalence of
1/2 c pomegranate 'paste' diluted with 1/2 c water
with
1c pomegranate juice.

It is a pretty large recipe, 8 onions and 20 pieces of chicken. I don't have a good intuition as to how a 1/2 c of p. molasses will work.

[cheesemaestro]

In the interim since I posted my question, I found this old Chowhound topic:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/309407

Gotta love it! Sometimes I think that every possible food question has already been asked and answered on Chowhound!

[BernalKC]

So after buying, tasting, and experimenting with pom molasses, and reviewing the older thread above, and doing some web searches, I agree with rworange that pom molasses and paste are not interchangeable. Sounds like the paste includes the all or part of the seed where the molasses is a concentrate of the juice with no seed component.

[missmasala]

here's a recent thread with some ideas:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/651377

[anakalia]

Ditto on the fesenjan (walnut and pom chicken OR eggplant).

I also recently added it to some vanilla cupcakes, and topped it off with an orange-blossom water buttercream frosting. I put a few pom. seeds on the top of the cupcakes. They were a big hit with my book club.

[karykat]

Your cupcakes sound absolutely beautiful. But didn't the molasses make them a little sour? That's my memory of p. molasses from using it in a chicken dish once.

[anakalia]

Thanks :) I think it might have made the cupcakes sour if I had used too much - I didn't end up having to use very much to give it a subtle flavor (I think about 1/3 cup, maybe a bit more than that...). I also think that the cupcakes were sweet enough to offset it... probably if you were making less sweet cupcakes it would be more problematic?

[unlaced]

Walnut and pomegranate chicken (lots of recipes online)
or
to flavour my gin & tonic

[lovescone]

here's what I am planning once I buy some:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/hea...

Enjoy!