Make Fresh Pomegranate Grenadine — 5 Steps To Craft A Homemade Syrup
In India, pomegranate season falls sometime during late winter and early summer, meaning this fresh fruit is available for use in culinary and mixology spaces for several months. Across many states, pomegranates can now be spotted throughout the year, but the freshest of the lot is to be found sometime when the warm weather makes itself known and when the first monsoon showers arrive on Indian shores. This means, the fresh, bright red, pink, purplish fruit can be used to prepare many homemade concoctions during these months — one of which is the vibrant, sweet and tart grenadine.
Generally, Indian kitchens are quite familiar with pomegranates as an ingredient used for making several preserves, juices and jams. It is also widely used to accentuate culinary preparations as simple as curd rice, to introduce sweet and tart contrasts in what are actually savoury preparations. In an Indian kitchen, working with pomegranate is then hardly a new activity, making the task of preparing grenadine without any artificial ingredients an interesting prospect for a culinary enthusiast as well as a home mixologist.
Here’s more on preparing homemade grenadine syrup using the fresh fruit for adding it to housemade cocktails and mocktails — all during pomegranate season:
Choose Ripe, Juicy Pomegranates
The first step involved in preparing grenadine at home is choosing deep red, plump pomegranates. Removing the seeds from at least 2 pomegranates would then yield a rich, tart and sweet juice — the finest for preparing a vibrant grenadine. Use a mixer or crush with a masher to extract the pomegranate juice and strain the mixture with the help of a fine sieve or a muslin cloth to separate the juice from pulp. Avoid over blending as this can make the juice go slightly bitter.
Make The Sugar Syrup
What is perhaps one of the more significant steps involved in making homemade grenadine, the sugar syrup prepared for the pomegranate infusion can be made using a 1:1 sugar to water ratio. Heat the mixture gently until the sugar dissolves entirely before adding a splash of lemon juice that brightens its flavour.
Adding Pomegranate Juice
The next part of making grenadine is to add the pomegranate juice into the simple syrup. Simply stir in the bright pomegranate juice while simmering the simple syrup on low heat for 5–7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Allow the mixture to thicken without overboiling it, as this can take away from the actual colour and aroma of the syrup. The lemon juice added to the simple syrup earlier would also contribute to retaining the overall colour of the fruit, whilst brightening the flavours of the syrup.
Also Read: Pomegranate Cocktails: 5 Tips For Infusing This Fruit Into Fall Drinks
Subtle Aromatic Infusions
What would lend this homemade grenadine a personalised quality is the infusion of spices or aromatics that you prefer the most. This can be anything from rose water to cinnamon to black salt, which brings another flavourful layer to the syrup even as they lend it a customised effect. Cocktails and mocktails made using this syrup would then be complete with the fruit’s tasting notes and a layered, sophisticated flavour. Such a subtly flavoured grenadine can be used to infuse the fruit’s flavours in drinks like pomegranate martini cocktails, whisky sours or gin fizzes.
Bottling And Mixing
Let the grenadine syrup cool completely before bottling it either in airtight glass bottles or jars. Made without artificial sweeteners — instead full of sweet, fresh seasonal sweet flavours — and any other preserves, the grenadine syrup has a shelf life of 3–4 weeks in the fridge. Refrigerate the syrup after using it for preparing mocktails finished off with a splash of soda water or cocktails like flavoured mojitos and spritzers. This fresh grenadine can also be used as a drizzle over desserts, ice creams or yogurt bowls to bring a bright, vibrant colour pop into multiple culinary and mixology preparations.
Drink Responsibly. This communication is for audiences above the age of 25.
