Fotocuisine

I tend more toward the savory than the sweet when I cook, but you can’t beat these two words: POM cheesecake.

I wanted to do little mini-bites, and I also wanted to experiment to see if I could incorporate POM pomegranate juice into the cheesecakes themselves instead of just in the sauce. One of the best things about experimenting when cooking is tasting the results!

These would make great appetizers or desserts for a mingling crowd. Since we’re right between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s the time for winter school and office parties, and these little minis would go over pretty nicely.
More pics and recipe inside

For November’s POM Wonderful Blog Post, I made shrimp tempura with a POM pomegranate juice wasabi sauce. I wanted to fuse a little Japanese techniques with Floridian and even a little French and see how everything turned out. I knew the pomegrante base for the sauce would work well with ginger and garlic and lemon zest; pomegranate juice is bold enough to take on the flavors without overwhelming or being overwhelmed. Wasabi also goes well in sauces with sweet notes, especially Japanese plum and citrus sauces.

Even though it’s almost winter, and heavy meat braises with roots are coming into their time, it’s still warm here in Florida, so I wanted something a little lighter. I shelled some local Florida shrimp and made a tempura batter, lightly frying them in vegetable oil.

This could either be an appetizer or a main course, depending on how many shrimp are made. Christey and I couldn’t imagine moving on to anything else after this, so between us we devoured over a pound of shrimp.
Recipe and technique inside…

Most of what I like to cook is savory. I do have a couple favorite desserts, however. One is mousse, and last February, I made a POM pomegranate and white chocolate mousse for Valentine’s Day. For this month’s POM Guest Blogger entry, I decided to try incorporating pomegranate into one of my other favorite classic desserts, crème brûlée.

Crème brûlée is commonly served with berries, and the tart richness of pomegrante made me think they would go well together. I wanted to layer pomegranate jelly on the bottom, then form the custard over the top, followed by the crunchy sugar crust.

The pomegranate layer had to be denser than custard, or it would float to the top during the cooking process. While pomegranate-infused cream would be tasty, I wanted to try the layer idea, so I started with a pomegranate-gelatin mixture. The custard crème itself would be added warm, and I was worried the heat would almost certainly melt the gelatin, so I tried to be careful to reduce splashing when adding the custard. Browning the sugar was actually perfect for this experiment, because it masked the sides of the dish, where any seeping juice would be hidden. My grandmother, a lifetime baker, always says: “Frosting hides a multitude of sins”, and, happily, that applies to caramelized sugar as well!

In the end, it worked really well, and was a very tasty dessert. The layers and taste were elegant and provided a wonderful, silky richness.

Step-by-step inside

This month’s POM recipe had an interesting twist from the start. Our local Space Coast newspaper, Florida Today is doing a feature on food blogging and had contacted Christey and me, asking if they could “ride along” on one of our blog posts. The day they called, I had just figured out what I was going to do for my POM post for September, so we arranged a get-together and I cooked up some lamb.

Lamb and pomegranate have a pretty close history in the middle east, where pomegranates are common. On the French side, a bordelaise is a refined red wine sauce that pairs well with hearty meats like lamb. Personally, I think the traditional mint and lamb combination is far too overpowering for a tasty cut of lamb, and I also have an irrational dislike of rosemary. But, fresh thyme is also a common lamb herb (and is one of my favorite herbs in general), and substituting pomegranate juice for red wine in a serious reduction creates a sweet, fruity taste that (I think) makes an interesting contrast to the mint jelly so common in UK or stuffy New York City preparations of lamb. So, I took the concept of a reduced red wine bordelaise and substituted POM 100% pomegranate juice, used fresh thyme and some chives for the herbs, and took a lot of liberty with some traditional lamb concepts.

And, we did all this while Christey and I were being interviewed on camera and video. We’ll link to the final articles when they become available.

We made a pomegranate bordelaise over grilled lamb chops, with a spinach greek salad and pomegranate vinaigrette.

Recipe and step by step inside…

A couple years ago, Christey and I ate at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon restaurant at the Venetian in Las Vegas. It was the first (and so far only) Keller restaurant we have visited. I had Keller’s gnocchi parisienne, which is a different way of making them from the more common potato or semolina versions. This recipe alone was the reason I bought his Bouchon cookbook, and I’ve since been inspired by several recipes.

Gnocchi parisienne are savory, but made from the more traditionally sweet pâte à choux dough. For the savory version, mustard, cheese, and herbs are added.

For June’s POM Pomegranate recipe, I decided to try to take the pâte à choux gnocchi back toward a sweet direction, and made a dessert gnocci with POM 100% pomegranate juice, served with a pomegranate juice and chocolate ganache.

Dessert inside!

To some, May means the Kentucky Derby. To others, the start of the summer growing season. To many backyard chefs, May is the start of barbecue.

Barbecue used to be a very regional thing. One area might mean pork while another means beef. Some barbecue chefs prefer to smoke, some to grill, and some to braise. There are passionate arguments about dry (a spice rub) vs. wet (cooking with the sauce), and even the ingredients in a sauce, whether the meat is cooked in it or not.

I like to barbecue, and I don’t like to get drawn in to one technique over another. No matter the method, barbecue is just good food. For this month’s POM blogger entry, I’ve made a tasty POM pomegranate juice barbecue sauce for pork baby back ribs. The sweet spice of the sauce is a nice balance to the salty, tender rib meat.

OMG BBQ inside

Lamb is one of those traditional ingredients of spring. These days, world-wide distribution and modern farming methods allow lamb to be available year round (for better or worse), but for many years, lamb was only available in the springtime.

Lamb is a great meat to use with pomegranate juice — it’s often paired with sweet condiments like mint jelly, and the complex pomegranate flavors go well with the earthiness of the meat. For this month’s POM blogger entry, I wanted to use a part of lamb that isn’t as familiar as chops. Lamb shank is economical, and is very tasty. Served pulled over linguine, with vegetables and fresh herbs, and this meal delivers a lot of flavor, but is very easy to cook.

spring on in

Pomegranates have a wide and varied history in mythology. Since pomegranates may be one of the first cultivated fruits, this shouldn’t be too surprising. Ancient Greeks believed that Aphrodite (the original Greek incarnation of the Roman goddess Venus) planted the first pomegranate, on Cyprus. The rest is history… or at least mythology.

February, of course, is the month of Saint Valentine’s Day — a different cultural viewpoint on the ever evolving courtship of the human race. For Valentine’s Day this year, I thought it would be fun to mix two favorites in the field of love: pomegranates and chocolate.

I made a layered double-mousse, one with white chocolate, and one with pure POM pomegranate juice. When blended, the recipe creates a nice white and pink contrast, in honor of the holiday.

Gotta love it…

The POM Wonderful people have selected FotoCuisine’s Seared Duck Breast with Pomegranate Reduction as the winner of the 2008 POM Blog Recipe Contest!

Details, and the runners-up can be found on the POM Wonderful Blog.

You’ll notice the contest is in my name; there was only a spot for one name on the entry form. If it hadn’t been for Christey’s food styling and photographic talents, I doubt we would have been noticed as much.

Thanks to everyone who has commented on the original recipe, and especially thanks to those who attempted the dish and commented that it was an approachable recipe! We’ve had link-backs from Atlanta to Australia, and it’s really cool that people took an interest.

Over the next 11 months, I’ll be posting a pomegranate recipe a month which will appear here at FotoCuisine, and at the POM Wonderful Blog. Due to space considerations there (and my tendency toward verbosity), the FotoCuisine posts may be a little more detailed. So check back in, here and there! And thanks again from Christey and me for the encouragement and the visits!

Foodbuzz has a Tastemaker Program, which occassionally offers ingredients or products to featured publishers, to sample and enjoy. Recently, Foodbuzz offered us the chance to try a sampling of Cowgirl Chocolates, and Christey and I couldn’t exactly turn down samples of handmade chocolate.

Gourmet Chocolate? With chili peppers?