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Potatoes & Pomegranates: A Thanksgiving Feast

Season Six, Autumn 2008

Potatoes & Pomegranates: A Thanksgiving Feast

Pomegranates, potatoes, chocolate, chilis and cumin are just a few examples of foods that have been exchanged between the Middle East and the Americas. The recipes in our thanksgiving episode speak to this interaction of tastes.

Cooking Show Video

This thanksgiving we merge the flavors of the old and new worlds. Kibbe is a traditional Middle Eastern dish that is also popular in Mexico and Latin America, we use thanksgiving favorites turkey and sweet potatoes in this version and top it with frizzled shallots, toasted pine nuts and a cranberry pomegranate sauce.

Cooking Show Video

This Thanksgiving try our version of Cranberry Sauce, which includes pomegranates and jalapeno. It is a little bit sweet, a little bit tart, and a little bit spicy. Pomegranates are from the Old World, and made their way over to the Americas, and cranberries were eaten by Native Americans in the Northeastern United States. They combine perfectly for a Thanksgiving sauce!

November 25, 2008   |   0 comments
Tags: Middle East and North Africa, Pomegranate
Cooking Show Video

Chocolate is one of the many foods that the world gained from the discovery of America. It was sacred to the pre-Colombian peoples, and is worshipped around the world to this day. So many cultures use chocolate as a way of celebration, and this cake is just that. We combined nutty tahini and sour pomegranate molasses to achieve a complex and moist, yet simple-to-make chocolate cake. The garnish makes it look extra festive, so be sure to include the cream, pistachios, and pomegranate seeds.

3 room temperature eggs

150 ml sunflower seed oil

150 ml yogurt

4 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

2 tablespoons tahini

½ cup sugar

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

4 tablespoons dark chocolate baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Grease the bottom of a 10” spring-form cake tin with butter, line the bottom with parchment paper, and grease again. This will allow you to remove the baked cake from the tin easily. In one bowl combine the eggs, oil, yogurt, molasses, and sugar. Whisk until smooth. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 45 minutes, or until a fork inserted comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the cake tin for 10 minutes, then run a knife along the edge. Remove from the tin and let cool on a wire rack.
Serve with whipped cream or a combination of equal parts mascarpone and thick goats milk yogurt, crumbled pistachios, and pomegranate seeds.

Tasty Tip

Arab/American by Gary Nabhan looks at the cultural traditions that Arabs from Spain brought with them to Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Read about wrangling camels in the American desert, vocabulary used by the cowboys that originated in Arabic and native plants exchanged between deserts.

Cooking Show Video

This is a simple trick for getting the seeds out of a pomegranate.

November 25, 2008   |   0 comments
Tags: Middle East and North Africa, Pomegranate