Pomegranate Molasses Salad Dressing

I can’t believe that here in Georgia, summer is technically over as most of the children in public school return to classes today!!  Maisie has two weeks remaining to her summer break but she would happily return to school today as she loves school and her teacher.  In my mind it’s still summer as it’s Georgia and HOT outside!  With that being said, most meals are quick, cold or made on the grill.  Those three factors were a consideration this month when choosing a recipe for this Secret Recipe Club reveal.  This month I was assigned Sawsan’s blog, Chef in Disguise.  We were super excited when we perused Sawsan’s blog because she lives in the UAE and shares easy and authentic middle eastern, Levantine and arabic recipes and we adore middle eastern food.  We also knew that it would be a great opportunity to use some of our rarely-used pantry items in a new and different way.  Sawsan had quite a few recipes that caught our attention including her Kofta bi tahini which would have been made with sweet potatoes to better fit in with our diet; and then two totally off-diet and non-middle eastern treats, sfogliatelle, one of my favorite Italian treats and my all time absolute-favorite-cake-ever, Swedish prinsesstarta. But as I said, it’s hot here in Georgia and we’re trying to eat healthy so a new and interesting dressing on a salad topped with some sesame crusted seared Ahi tuna won the recipe contest.  We chose Sawsan’s Ponegranate molasses salad dressing because it sounded totally delicious AND we had all the ingredients in our pantry.  Big Win! 

I don’t know why the lemon and garlic were left out of this picture, but trust me, they made it into the dressing.  I love that we were able to use two of our rarely used ingredients in a new and delicious way.  We generally use pomegranate molasses when making Fesenjān and sumac combined with garlic powder, dusted onto poultry before roasting, makes for an easy and delicious way to make a bird. 

We followed Sawsan’s recipe for the dressing pretty closely, but since we have an abundance of mint growing in the garden, we used fresh instead of dried.  Also, Sawsan mentioned in her post that balsamic or apple cider vinegar could be used, each giving the dressing a different flavor profile.  We decided to split the difference and play off the sweet, sour and the tart notes of the dressing and used both types of vinegars.  Our decision to use both vinegars made for a totally delicious sweet, tart, complex and well balanced dressing.  I especially liked the mint component of the dressing, subtle and a wonderful addition.  We stored the extra dressing in a glass jar in the fridge and just gave it a shake each time we used it. 

Check out Sawsan’s blog for not only fabulous recipes and photos, but also for an interesting look at her culture, the country in which she lives and of course a few glimpses of her cute little kids.

Pomegranate molasses salad dressing (adapted from here)

• juice of one lemon (about 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup olive oil 
• 2 TBS. Vincotto 
• 2 TBS. apple cider vinegar  
• 4 TBS. pomegranate molasses
• 2 large cloves of garlic minced
• 2 large fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon sumac
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• half of a red onion finely chopped
• black pepper to taste

Add all the ingredients to the jar of a blender and process until well combined.  

Enjoy!!

My previous Secret Recipe Club Recipe Posts: 

Beef Keema  
Roasted Grape Tomato, Garlic & Poblano Ragu
Mexican Feast: Cream of Ancho Chile Soup, Roasted Poblano Burger with Chile de Arbol Guacamole & Pork Crusted Baked Poblano Fries 
Zesty Zucchini Skillet 
Garlic Seafood in Coconut Milk 
Lamb & Eggplant with Chiles
Fijian Ceviche
Carrot & Sweet Potato Pancakes   
Chicken Burgers with Spinach & Mushrooms 
Paradise Mango Curried Shrimp 
Laura Goodenough’s Apple Coffee Cake 
Loaded Potato Soup
Lemon Almond Biscotti 
Creamy Mints 
Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken 
Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings 
Fried Green Tomatoes 
Chicken Satay Noodle Salad 
Double Chocolate Mousse Cake 
Candied Popcorn
Fruit, Nut & Poppy Seed Chicken Salad 
Broiled Sushi 
Health(ier) Peanut Brittle 
Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites 
Texas Chicken with Lime Butter 
Pork Belly Soup with Collard Greens 
Thin Mint Irish Coffee 
Levain Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies 
Welsh Cakes 
Nutella Crêpes 
Cilantro Lime Chicken 
Holy Guacamole 
and
Home Style Chicken Curry

An InLinkz Link-up

Roasted Spatchcocked Turkey

With everyone being sick this year at Thanksgiving, I just didn’t have it in me to make my usual Spiced Rubbed Turkey with Cognac Gravy and decided instead to make a simple Roasted Spatchcocked Turkey.  I’ve seen directions for making spatchcocked turkey all over the internet but I decided to just use one of my go-to easy and favorite poultry seasonings and not have to think about anything new.  Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, I split my turkey along the backbone and removed the bone and I also cracked the bird along the breast bone to make carving the bird later that much easier.  I prepared an aluminum foil lined baking sheet and added a rack on which the bird would sit. I rinsed and dried the turkey and spread it out, skin side down on the rack.  I seasoned the inside of the turkey then turned the turkey skin side up and seasoned the skin side.  I placed the turkey still skin side up, uncovered, into the refrigerator so that the skin could dry out a bit before cooking on Thursday.

Thursday, about an hour before I planned to put the turkey in the oven I removed the ready-to-go bird, already on it’s cooking pan from the fridge and let it warm up a bit on the counter.  The bird cooked perfectly in just shy of 1.5 hours and as you can see, all the skin was golden, crispy and delicious.  Making the bird this way doesn’t make for a beautiful whole bird presentation at the table but it sure makes carving the bird easy-peasy.  Because I had cracked the bird along the breast bone, once the turkey was cooked I easily used my poultry shears and just cut right up that center crease along the breast bone and moved the entire right half of the bird to my carving board.  I quickly cut off the wing and the thigh quarter and then separated the drum stick.  Next I removed the breast meat from the bone, giving me a gorgeous and moist boneless breast which was easily carved with a golden crisp piece of skin on each serving.  Because it was just the three of us and my parents, just half of the bird was all I needed for the serving platter.  All the turkey eaters heartily enjoyed the bird saying it was tender, juicy and delicious.   

Roasted Spatchcocked Turkey

• fresh turkey, mine was 12 pounds 
• sumac
• garlic powder
• sea salt
• fresh ground pepper 

At least one day before cooking prepare the turkey.  Split the turkey along the backbone and removed it.  Save the removed backbone and use it either for making a stock for gravy or in soup.  Crack the bird along the breast bone to make carving the bird later that much easier.  Prepared an aluminum foil lined baking sheet and add a rack on which the bird will sit. Rinse and dry the turkey well and spread it out, skin side down on the rack.  I season the inside of the turkey with the sumac, garlic powder, salt & pepper and then turned the turkey skin side up and seasoned the skin side with the same.  Place the turkey still skin side up, uncovered, into the refrigerator so that the skin can dry out a bit before cooking.  When ready to cook, remove the bird from the refrigerator on it’s ready-to-go baking rack and pan about an hour before putting into the oven.  Preheat the oven to 450F and insert the probe of a programmable meat thermometer into the thickest part of the breast meat.  Roast the bird for 75-90 minutes or until a meat thermometer in the breast meat registers 160F.  Once the bird reaches temperature remove from the oven and allow the bird to sit for 10-15 minutes before carving. 

To carve the bird use cooking shears and cut right up that center crease along the breast bone.  Moved half of the bird to a carving board and remove the wing and thigh quarter and then separate the drum stick.  Next removed the breast meat from the bone.  Carve the now boneless breast so that a golden crisp piece of skin is on each serving

Enjoy!