One afternoon, I wanted to make ice-cream. I had cream and eggs in the fridge, but I didn’t have my ice cream barrel in the freezer…annoying! The quickest and easiest solution was to make a semifreddo. With new season pomegranates available now and citrus is a perfect pairing, I hatched a plan. So here you see before you a Pomegranate and Lime Semifreddo!
Pomegranate is one of the world’s most ancient fruits. It probably originated in the Middle East, cultivation spread swiftly throughout the Mediterranean, India and China. The only edible part is the seeds, which are sweet and tart at the same time. Eaten as is, they are delicious and nutritious. They can also be juiced and made into a molasses and dried. The juice is also used as a natural dye. Extracting the seeds is somewhat tricky though. I find the easiest way is to cut a shallow cross at the top of the fruit and prise it apart, invert the skin, separate from the membrane, then remove the seeds.
Before we jump head first into the semifreddo recipe, I want to quickly tell you, if you don’t have the inclination to make meringues (but it’s a very good way of using leftover egg whites *see notes), then shop bought work equally well.
This is a handy recipe to have in your repertoire; you can make it ahead and it’s most definitely a crowd pleaser. I’d love to know what you think, just comment below should you decide to make it.
Pomegranate & Lime Semifreddo
Equipment
- 1 900g loaf tin
Ingredients
- 340 g pomegranate seeds reserve 40g for garnish
- 75 g caster sugar
- juice 1 lime & zest of ½ lime
- 1½ tsp cornflour + 2 tbls water
- 300 ml double cream
- zest 1 lime
- 85 g icing sugar
- 4 medium eggs separated
- 50 g meringue broken into pieces
- 40 g unsalted pistachios roughly chopped
Instructions
- Blitz the pomegranate seeds in a blender, then strain through a fine sieve. You should end up with approx 150g juice. Pour the juice into a saucepan with the zest & juice of half a lime and the sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Mix the cornflour with the water. Reduce the heat, then add the cornflour, stir, bring back to the boil, then simmer until the syrup thickens. Cool, add a few prepared pomegranate seeds. Set to one side.
- Line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites with an electric hand whisk until stiff, set aside. In another bowl, whisk the yolks with the icing sugar until pale and starting to thicken. Finally, in a third bowl, whip the cream until it’s the consistency of yogurt, add the lime zest. Fold the yolk mixture into the whipped cream until combined, then fold in the egg whites and the broken meringues.
- Spoon half of the cream mixture into the tin and freeze for 30 minutes or until just set (keeping the rest of the cream mixture in the fridge). Once set, take the tin out of the freezer and drizzle over some of the pomegranate syrup. Reserve the rest to decorating later. Top with the remaining cream mixture & return to the freezer for another 30 mins. Now add the pistachios and gently fold them in. Cover and freezer for at least 2 hours before serving.
- Turn out onto a serving plate and peel away the parchment paper. Decorate with the remaining pomegranate seeds and syrup. Store in the freezer for up to one month.
Notes
Tips:
- don’t have pomegranate, use blueberries instead, they pair so well with lime too!
- remove from the semifreddo from the freezer and pop in the fridge for 25-30 minutes before serving.
- substitute pistachios with roughly chopped almonds.
Swedish Wholegrain Bread
Leave a Reply