Red Wine Pomegranate Sauce

Our little pomegranate tree was prolific this season. Last week I harvested 25.2 lbs. of pomegranates; about 35 softball sized fruits. It was the first year I covered the tree with netting and also the first year the birds did not get most of the harvest!

Click on the photos to enlarge.

Pomegranate seeds are called arils and they are held in place with a white pith or membrane. The seeds are somewhat sweet, a little tangy, very crunchy and really satisfyingly delicious! They make you pucker and smile all at once!

Plus, they are good for you. 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds provides 4 grams of protein and are filled with Antioxidants, Vitamin C, Potassium and Magnesium.  The seeds are good on their own as a snack, perfect for topping a salad or garnish for fish or chicken, great in sandwiches, or in this case they made a rich, flavorful sauce to accompany a gorgeous piece of pork I made recently. I’m thinking of next making a pomegranate ice cream garnished with the seeds.

My ‘go-to’ online food purveyor did not disappoint once again. Porcelet Collar Roast is cut from the neck and upper shoulder of a milk-fed piglet. This pig was from Quebec, Canada. This cut is often called Coppa. Their diet of warm milk provides abundant marbling rendering the pork sweet with a delicate flavor and exceptional tenderness. I’ve had pork neck once before in Tuscany, but I have to say this piece of meat, with the accompanying sauce, was far superior. Truly melt in your mouth.

The sauce is really easy to make and uses only a few ingredients, but first you start by juicing a few pomegranates to get 1/2 cup juice. There are a number of different methods for extracting the seeds to make the juice. I cut the fruit in half and using my fingers just pulled out the arils to separate them from the white pithy part. You can eat that white part, and they say it is good for you, but it is bitter. No thanks!

My friend, and excellent cook, Bonnie Ungerecht reminded me of the water bath method. Score the pomegranate in quarters. Do not cut all the way through the skin, but just enough so you can separate. Place the scored fruit in a large bowl of water. Using your hands, pull out the seeds. The pith will float to the top making it easy to remove with a little less juice flying everywhere.

And finally, my least favorite method. Cut the pomegranate in half and over a bowl gently beat the fruit with the back of a wooden spoon until the seeds release. It’s a messy job no matter how you do it, but that one makes the biggest mess!

BACK TO THE SAUCE:

In addition to the 1/2 cup pomegranate juice you will need 1/2 cup good quality, rich red wine and 1/2 cup beef broth (preferably homemade). You can also use store-bought juice, but this was so fun to juice the seeds from our own tree! Final ingredients include 1 Tbsp. minced shallot; 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard; 2 tablespoons butter, divided. Pretty simple for such a flavorful sauce.

To juice, put a handful or two of seeds into the blender (no pith) and pulse until the seeds are just cracked and juices start to form, but are not crushed. It’s better to do this in batches as you do not want to totally crush the seeds. Strain through a fine-mesh seize pressing on the seeds to release the juices.

The Spanish wine I used, Palacio del Conde Gran Seleccion, is medium-bodied with ripe red currant, raspberry and generous spicy aromas. It is very smooth with a strawberry core, wrapped in silky vanilla oak. (My sister, Cathy, after a couple glasses of wine used to love to write wine descriptions. Very fun! And she was very good at it!)

I love the mild, sweet, delicate flavor of shallots.

Their soft lavender color is beautiful, too!

Dice them small enough that they nearly disappear once you start sauteing in butter. 

Heat 1/2 tablespoon butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet until bubbling. Add the shallots and cook gently until they are soft; about 2 to 3 minutes. Do not brown.

Add wine, beef broth, pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard and stir to completely incorporate the mustard. Add the last 1 1/2 tablespoons butter to finish the sauce. This makes the sauce super velvety.

Optional: You may choose to strain the sauce through a fine-mesh seize to make it even smoother, but I like when you occasionally get a little, tiny bit of shallot so opted not to strain. Your choice.

Set the sauce aside while you prepare the pork.

Reheat the sauce on very gentle, low heat when you’re ready to plate.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. This porcelet comes so beautifully prepared from D’Artagnan, all wrapped in netting, that there is not much you have to do to get it ready to roast. Dry the porcelet well with a paper towel and generously cover all sides with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Get a heavy-bottomed (I like cast iron or Calphalon) skillet quite hot, but not smoking and add 2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Place the roast in the hot pan; toss in a few sprigs of fresh thyme and brown on all sides until nicely caramelized.

Place, uncovered in the 400 degree oven and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 degrees and cook for another 20 minutes, basting occasionally, until internal temperature reaches a minimum of 145 degrees. This will depend on the size of your pork roast, which is why it is so important to take its temperature.

Remove from the oven. Tent loosely with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before carving. Do NOT overcook the pork. It will continue cooking a few more degrees while resting out of the oven.

This sauce was so fun to make and the meal was simply delicious! I’ve made reduced red wine sauce many different ways, but never with pomegranate juice. I love experimenting in the kitchen, trying new recipes and surprising friends and family alike!

UNTIL NEXT TIME…