09 September 2008

Dried figs & pomegranates

It is hard to complain about anything when there are so many delicious and exquisite foods available to be eaten every single day. This morning I got a very early pomegranate. Inside, the juicy seeds are more of a rose colour than red. But bursting with sweetness.


Then there's a new favourite for me: dried figs. I've never liked dried fruit. Actually, I hate dried fruit. I spent many hours as a child diligently picking all the dried fruit out of fruitcake each Christmas. So it took some cajoling for me to even try a dried fig here. And what a surprise. These figs were grown down south, picked ripe, then dried a bit, then washed in salted sea water, then left in the sun to dry again. They are rather soft and the skin is a bit chewy. And the inside is a brilliant red colour. And the taste is indescribable. Just let me admit here that I ate 15 of these beauties in one sitting. Yup. Don't recommend it. But I did it. And if my stomach didn't feel like it was bursting...I would have eaten even more. I figure if I wait about 2 hours, I can probably have 5 or 6 more!!!

P.S. they are quite awesome when eaten together with fresh roasted hazelnuts.

2 comments:

Peter Stewart said...

How does one eat these pomegranates?? I bought one but made sucha mess of eating it:-)

Gabriella said...

How to prepare a pomegranate WITHOUT the mess.

Cut the pomegranate in half (ok, this might make a tiny bit of mess).

Now, fill a large bowl with cold water. Put one half of the pomegranate into the bowl. Now using both hands, just peel away the skin and pull the red seeds out all under water. The red juice will get caught in the water (and not on your shirt). Plus, as a bonus, all that white fleshy part of the fruit actually floats. So you can just scoop it out at the end. Drain the water, and enjoy. Oh, and repeat for the second half of the fruit.