Pomegranate Seeds

Grown in the gardens of Babylon and seen to symbolise fertility, the pomegranate has been used for its seeds and juice in the food of the Middle East and western Asia for centuries. The fresh seeds are most often used in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking, particularly spinkled over hoummus and in meat cookery in the Middle East, and in fruit salads. In their dried form, when they darken and become slightly sticky, the seeds are popular in the cooking of northern India, where they are used in chutneys, curries, rice stuffings, with lentils and chick peas and sprinkled over yoghurt raitas. Fresh or dried, the natural astringency of pomegranate seeds makes them an ideal souring agent. The seeds and their juice are also used to make the liqueur grenadine. Pomegranate molasses or syrup is used in salad dressings and sauces, particularly in Persian and Middle Eastern cooking. Pomegranate juice is used as a gargle to relieve fever and diarrhoea. Available: look for fresh pomegranates in autumn in good greengrocers and the dried seeds and molasses in Indian or Middle Eastern food stores.