Kick your holiday turkey up a notch with pomegranate sauce

December 3, 1:04 PMSan Fernando Valley Restaurant ExaminerJuan Hovey

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Pomegranate seeds and juice for your holiday turkey

The holidays wouldn't be the holidays without roast turkey, and roast turkey wouldn't be roast turkey without gravy, right?

Yes and no. The gravy you get with most holiday turkey is pretty sad stuff -- short on flavor, heavy with flour, slick with fat.

Here's a better idea -- a rich and lively sauce of pomegranate seeds and juice.

Holiday Pomegranate Sauce

6 cups cold water

2 stalks celery, rinsed and scrubbed

1 large onion, peeled and quartered

2 large carrots, peeled and halved

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 bay leaf

Salt

Pepper

The pan juices from the roasted turkey.

2 whole pomegranates

Bring the water, celery, onion, carrots, garlic, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to a simmer in a large pot. Simmer the broth for two hours or so, clearing away any scum that rises to the surface.

With a sharp knife, score the pomegranate skins, making four cuts from top to bottom. Fill a sink with water and submerge a colander. Working with your fingers and keeping the pomegranate submerged, break the fruit apart and work the seeds away from the white membrane to which they are attached. The seeds, being heavier, will sink to the bottom of the colander, and the membrane will float.

Discard the membrane.

Place about three quarters of the seeds in a food processor fitted with a plastic blade or, in the alternative, with the metal blade reversed so that the dull edge leads and the sharp edge trails. Pulse the seeds for a minute or two as the action punctures the seeds and releases the juice.

Turn the contents of the processor into a strainer set over a bowl. With a rubber spatula, press the seeds against the bottom and sides of the strainer, catching the pure juice in the bowl.

When the turkey finishes roasting, remove it from the roasting pan to a cutting board and, using a wide spoon, skim the cooking juices of fat. Add the remaining juices to the broth, along with the strained pomegranate juice, and reduce the sauce by one third over high heat, for 15 minutes or so.

If necessary, thicken the sauce with a tablespoon of cornstarch dissoved in three or four tablespoons of water. Taste for seasoning. Add the pomegranate seeds and cook over a medium flame for a moment or two, to warm them through, and serve.

If you liked this recipe, visit Examiner.com's holiday party recipes slideshow to find 18 others.