Make your own pomegranate molasses

If, like me, you've been drooling over Helen's Pomegranate Duck with Caramelised Pears, then you'll need to get your hands on some pomegranate molasses. I trawled all my local supermarkets for this middle eastern ingredient, but my searching was in vain. Unfortunately Surrey doesn't seem to be quite cosmopolitan enough to stock such delicacies. However, a few minutes of internet research yielded a surprisingly easy recipe, so I thought I would have a go at making my own.

Pomegranates have been around since ancient times, and supposedly it was the temptation of sucking the seeds of one of these bejewelled lovelies that trapped Persephone in the underworld. They have featured in the Bible, the Torah and in Romeo and Juliet; Nigella Lawson has been known to swoon over their ruby-like beauty and AA Gill has been known to eat the seeds with a safety pin.

Pomegranate molasses is a great marinade for duck or lamb (try this recipe by Sophie Grigson), it is sticky, rich, sweet and sour. It features heavily in the Moro cookbook, which comes highly recommended by me.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe for pomegranate molasses.

Pomegranate molasses

Ingredients

500ml pomegranate juice (widely available - I used Pom)
75ml lime juice (or lemon juice, which is more traditional)
100g golden caster sugar

1. Add the ingredients to a saucepan, stir and bring to the boil.
2. Simmer until reduced by two thirds
3. Transfer to a container and cool. The molasses will thicken further as it cools.

I used two tablespoons of pomegranate molasses as a sauce for duck, bubbled up with the duck juices and a pinch of cinnamon. I then froze the rest in an ice cube tray, ready for future pomegranate emergencies.

Enjoy!

The Princess