The Pompous Pomegranate

Last week, I was casually browsing the produce section at Harris Teeter when the pomegranates caught my eye.  How was it that I had never so much as seen the inside of this superfruit, this powerhouse of antioxidants?  Yes, I'd had pomegranate-flavored smoothies, but never the raw fruit itself.  I made the plunge and bought one without any real plan of what I was going to do with it.  After a few futile sessions of searching for pomegranate recipes online, I came across a blog called urban vegan, which describes the process of making chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds.  Apparently, the seeds, not the flesh, are the main attraction of the fruit. 

All you need is a pomegranate and some dark chocolate chips.

Cut the pomegranate into quarters.  Next, as countless sites on the internet agreed, the best method is to submerge the fruit in a large bowl of water, and carefully pry the seeds away from the flesh.  It's not unlike pulling kernels of corn from the cob, except these seeds are delicate because they're filled with juice and covered with a very thin membrane.

Drain the seeds and remove any remaining bits of flesh.

Lay the seeds on a paper towel and allow them to dry completely. 

Next, melt dark chocolate (I used Hershey's Special Dark chips) over a double boiler. Drop the seeds into the chocolate, coat with chocolate, then remove with a fork and place them on a piece of parchment paper.  Allow the morsels to sit until the chocolate has hardened. 

This process became rather labor-intensive, so my individually-coated seeds evolved into chocolate-pomegranate "clusters" to save some time (there are a lot of seeds in just one fruit!). 

The morsels are a satisfying combination of the bitter chocolate and the juicy, tart seeds of the once-intimidating pomegranate.