Try pomegranates for a healthful treat

Pomegranates used to be the lobsters of the fruit world. They were tasty and enticing, full of nice juice and lots of sugar. But were they worth all the trouble it took to pry the little arils (yep,that’s what the juice-filled little seed sacs are called) out of the tough, fleshy shell?

Nyeh, maybe not.

But the 21st century is full of time- and labor-saving inventions, in the culinary world as well as in more important areas such as house and office work. For anyone who craves the sweet flavor and impressive health benefits of the pomegranate, but who doesn’t want to work too hard to get them, help is at hand.

For one thing, pomegranate juice is now readily available at most grocery stores.

For another, the new Sharon Farm Market almost always has little boxes of pomegranate arils that a store employee has nicely prized out of the shell, just for you.

This should bring joy to your heart, literally, since pomegranates are supposed to be extraordinarily good for your entire cardiovascular system (they keep plaque from forming in your arteries).

They’re also supposed to fight cancer, help ward off Alzheimer’s disease and protect the developing spine of an infant in utero. They’re loaded with the cancer-fighting antioxidants that are supposed to go into your cells and clean out the damaging free radicals. They have tons of fiber (if you eat the fruit, instead of drinking it), and  they’re loaded with vitamin C (which is also one of the most powerful antioxidants). They have folic acid. And they have a lot of potassium, which is good for your muscles (including your heart) and nerves.

Now we’ve established that pomegranates are good for you, and that they’re easy to get at. So, what do you do with them? I just scoop them right out of the plastic container and eat them like candy, or raisins. They’re crunchy and yummy.

They are an excellent addition to salads. I normally use a very light dressing of just lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and a little sesame oil. I’m not sure how pomegranates would interact with a creamier dressing but I suspect the combination would be pretty darn nice. I’ve been especially enjoying salads of endive, flat-leaf parsley, arugula, walnuts and pomegranate.

Since this is the holiday season, you can add them to cocktails, and to cranberry sauce.

Like raspberries, they pair nicely with chocolate; try a hot fudge sundae with some pomegranate arils sprinkled over the top.

The cookbook author and television personality Nigella Lawson is very fond of pomegranates and has lots of recipes using them, if you get tired of just eating them by the spoonful. She has a particularly nice recipe for hand-whipped ice cream (no ice cream machine needed). It’s essentially the same as the lemon custard ice cream featured in this column just before Thanksgiving; in fact, that recipe was an adaptation of Lawson’s pomegranate recipe (which is easily found online).

She also has a recipe for something called Eton Mess (presumably named for the English school), which is a mix of crumbled meringue cookies and fruit. That recipe uses pomegranate juice and strawberries.

I’m doing a bit of a switcheroo and instead offering you a recipe from the wonderful Joan Nathan for meringue shells. Fill them with pomegranate arils and whipped cream, and grate some good chocolate over the top.

Really fresh eggs aren’t essential for this recipe, but since they’re readily available in the Northwest Corner, why  not use them? They’ll give you a much  loftier meringue than you are likely  to get from a regular grocery store egg.

                                                   Meringue shells

                From “Jewish Cooking in Americaâ€� by Joan Nathan

                                                       Makes eight

3 large egg whites;  a dash of salt;  1 teaspoon lemon juice;  3/4 cup sugar;

                                   1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

Beat the egg whites and salt at high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer (make sure the bowl is really, really clean) until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the sugar, 1/4 cup at a time. Then beat in the lemon juice and vanilla. Continue beating for another 12 minutes, until the meringue batter is very thick.

Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to drop the batter onto either a greased cookie sheet or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Do your best to keep each ball nice and smooth. Then use a teaspoon to make an indentation in the top of the meringue ball by twirling the back of the spoon on top of it.

Bake for one hour, then turn off the oven and leave the meringues in for another half hour.

Cool, fill with pomegranate arils and fresh whipped cream and shave chocolate over the tops. White chocolate, obviously, will look especially pretty. Or, add a spoonful of lemon curd in the nest before adding the whipped cream and pomegranates.