Pom Dinner Party - GARLIC POWER OLIVE TAPENADE STRAWS - my Appetizer!

Are you following along, I am covering my 7 course POM DINNER PARTY in detail.  7 courses, 7 different sauces used to make the meal.  Everything from a sweet Pom Grenadine (used to make the drinks), a thick heavy honey like Pom Molasses (used to make the bread) to... well, the rest have yet to be posted (but will later today and tomorrow... multiple posts each day so come back often).


Today, we will cover the APPETIZER.  Something small and light to set the mood.  I wanted to provide a handful of raw Arils (the juice and seed sacks that come from the pomegranate), as well as a shot of straight Pom Wonderful Pomegranate juice.  This gave the guests the taste of the pomegranate to measure the success of the dishes.  If all went well, there would be a bit of that tart, sweet taste in each of the dishes.

But in addition, I made a pomegranate/olive tapenade.  I used this olive mix to make a wonderful treat, spiral bread straws, stuffed with an olive spread flavored with a garlic infused pomegranate garlic power sauce (Sauce #3)!


Making a Garlic BBQ sauce is easy and is just about my very favorite of my home made sauces.  I love garlic!  Combine that with the tang of a pomegranate reduction and you have a delicious savory sauce.  I had a couple of dishes I was going to make with this sauce.  I needed a thin sauce, like a Carolina vinegar BBQ sauce.  


Here's what I did...


2 cups POM WONDERFUL Juice
1 bulb garlic, peeled, crushed, minced

1 additional bulb of garlic, juiced
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons Pom Molasses
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning (I used my own "Big Easy in a Jar")

• First step, over medium heat, a slow simmer, is to reduce the Pom Wonderful juice by 1/2.  This concentrates the flavors so they shine through the remaining ingredients.
• Add the minced garlic
• Add the juice from cold pressing the bulbs from a head of garlic
• Simmer the juice and garlic for 5 minutes.
• Add the remaining ingredients and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

Oh my... This was wonderful.  So many uses.  Any recipe that calls for ketchup or BBQ sauce and use some of this.  There are three levels of taste, the heavy garlic is strongest.  But that tang of pomegranates is the base around the Cajun spices.  If you love Cajun, if you love garlic, if you love Pomegranate... You will love this Pom Garlic Power Sauce!

But today, I want to tell you about my Tapenade...

Olive based, with walnut, Parmesan cheese and cilantro.

And held together with the Pom Garlic Power Sauce!

Here's what I did...

1 cup Kalamata Olives, chopped, pitted
2/3 cup toasted walnuts, finely chopped
½ cup Pom Garlic Power Sauce!
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp Lemon juice

Mix and enjoy


Tastes great on a cracker (Everything tastes great on a Ri... Well, you know).

Or, how about doing a spiral cut on a pork loin and using this as a stuffing.  Now that would be good eats!  How about topping a thin slice of garlic toast for a tapenade bruschetta??? OR as a base for an amazing olive pizza.  How about as a topping for a baked potato?  Maybe stuff some pasta shells or as a filling for a ravioli.  And if you want to add a little extra something to a lasagna, hide a layer of this in the middle.


So many uses come to mind.


But for my party, I chose to make Tapenade straws.  Thin bread sticks, with a twist that shows off the deep, rich colors of the tapenade.


Here's what I did...


1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
pinch of Salt
4 1/2 TBS Cold Butter, cut into cubes
4 1/2 ounces cold milk
1 tsp White Wine Vinegar


1 cup Pom Garlic Power Olive Tapenade

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Sift together the flour and baking powder into a food processor
• Add the butter and pulse until the flour resembles coarse bread crumbs
• Combine the milk and vinegar and then add to the flour mix.
• Pulse to form a dough with dots of butter
• Handle as little as possible to prevent the bread from becoming hard when baked
• Form a dough ball and refrigerate  for 1 hour
• Roll out the pastry until it is at least 1/4 inch thick or thinner
• Spread the tapenade on half the dough and fold the other half over, making a sandwich with the tapenade in the center
• cut into 1/2 inch thick strips
• place on a lined baking sheet.  twist several times to get the proper look
• bake for 15 minutes until golden brown and delicious!

And if you need a little help in learning to open a Pomegranate to get at the good stuff...

Here's how to open one... VERY neatly (So neatly, I did it over a white towel... No Mess)

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