Steamed Asparagus with Star Anise infused Pomegranate Molasses

If you are a food blogger keeping track of the ongoing blog events, I am sure you looked at this title and thought, Star Anise and Pomegranate – oh she is killing two birds with one stone… But  you are wrong, my friend! I am actually trying to kill four birds with one stone! Confused? Did you forget that Asparagus is an aphrodisiac?

Given it’s phallic shape, asparagus is frequently enjoyed as an aphrodisiac food. Feed your lover boiled or steamed spears for a sensuous experience. The Vegetarian Society suggests “eating asparagus for three days for the most powerful affect”.

-GourmetSlueth

With Valentine’s day just around the corner, I can send this dish to at least two more events around the theme of love… Am I not clever? I knew all these brain cells were given to me for a reason!

This dish is inspired by a recipe in the most recent addition to my cookbook collection – The Vegetable Dishes I can’t live without by Mollie Katzen. As I mentioned here before, we have been trying to eat healthy, and that means a simple roasted chicken or seafood dish with a side of salad or sauteed vegetables for weekday dinners. I try to make different marinades for the meat and seafood, but the sides get boring after a while. This book has a bunch of easy but delicious sounding vegetable recipes, which hopefully will make an otherwise boring weekday dinner more interesting.

This particular recipe is loosely based on the Roasted Asparagus with Pomegranate-lime glaze from this book. I steamed the asparagus instead of roasting, and also made my own pomegranate molasses from scratch where she used the store bought Pomegranate Molasses to make a glaze.

Pomegranate molasses is a thick reduction of pomegranate juice available in middle eastern food stores. I didn’t have any in hand, but I did have a large bottle of Pomegranate juice. So I went online searching for a pomegranate molasses recipe, and came across this easy one at Simply Recipes. Whenever I make any kind of reduction, I try to infuse it with some spices, and since I really needed to come up with a Star Anise recipe, I decided to infuse my molasses with star anise. It added a really nice spicy aroma to the molasses, I would use more next time for a more intense star anise flavour.

Ingredients

• 1 lb asparagus
• 1/4 cup pomegranate molasses (recipe below)
• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup toasted walnuts

Method

Clean the asparagus and snap off the tough ends from the spears. Steam the asparagus till just about tender. Remove from the steam and plunge in ice cold water immediately to stop the cooking process. Remove immediately and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

Heat a large non-stick pan and add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the asparagus and roll those around to coat all sides with the oil, and immediately switch off the stove. Season with salt and pepper and remove. We just want to warm it up, not cook it more.

To serve, arrange the asparagus on a platter and drizzle generously with the pomegranate molasses. Sprinkle the toasted walnuts.

Pomegranate Molasses

(based on http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/004170pomegranate_molasses.php)

Ingredients

• 4 cups pomegranate juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 8 star anise

Method

In a medium saucepan, heat pomegranate juice, sugar, star anise and lime juice on medium high until the sugar has dissolved and the juice starts to simmer. Reduce heat just enough to maintain a simmer. Simmer for about an hour, or until the juice has a syrupy consistency, and has reduced to about a cup. Remove the star anise from the liquid, and pour out into a jar. This can be stored for a few days in the refrigerator.

Allthe flavors came together well in this dish. We had this on the side of a simple pan roasted halibut, it made a wonderful dinner.  I still have about a cup of the molasses remaining, which might go into a nice cocktail.

This is my entry for these events

• AFAM – Pomegranate hosted by Sra of When My Soup Came Alive
• Think Spice – Think Star Anise hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s World
• Kitchen of Love hosted by Mele Cotte – the theme is to cook with any food item considered an aphrodisiac
• Theme of the Week – Valentine’s Day hosted by Pooja of My Creative Ideas 

Wishing everyone a happy Valentine’s Day in advance. Check out this site for a list of other aphrodisiac foods. And stay away from dill, lentil, lettuce, watercress, rue, and water lily – the anaphrodisiacs!

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Category: Asparagus, Nuts, Pomegranate, Side Dish - Dry, Star Anise, Vegetarian