Pomegranate liquer

Every New Year's Day morning Greek families wait impatiently for a knock on the door. The first person who will walk into the house the first day of the year should bring good luck and prosperity enclosed into a pomegranate. The lucky visitor breaks the pomegranate at the doorstep and the more seeds are spilled the better luck the household will have the entire year.

Pomegranate tree gives its fruits from September through February. If we save one or two for New Year's Day, what should we do with the rest? Pomegranate liquer to treat the guests of course!

First the hard part: juicing the pomegranate. Bear in mind that the juice might seem delicious, but it leaves dark stains on the hands, so wear latex gloves to handle them.

Generally there are three ways to get the juice out of the fruit. You can crack the fruit open and take out all the seeds in a sieve, squeeze the seeds and collect the juice. A more simple way is just to cut the fruit in half and squeeze it with a citrus squeezer. That might leave a bitter aftertaste to the juice. Alternatively, you can seed the pomegranate, pulp the little rubies using a blender and strain the juice with a sieve.

For the liquer you need 330 ml pomegranate juice, which you might get from 4-5 big pomegranates.

As for the alcohol used in the process, Greeks produce their own, usually in October when the grape harvesting is coming to an end. For example, in Crete a delicious alcoholic beverage, called raki, is produced, while in the Greek mainland another strong alcohol, called tsipouro is extracted. Housewives use those alcoholic extracts for their pomegranate liquer. However, since it is hard and expensive to find those in other countries, Russia can provide a solution. Vodka is an equally good and strong alcohol to make our paradisiac beverage.

Ingredients
From the garden             From the pantry                  From the booze cellar 
4-5 big pomegranates      250gr sugar                            1lt good quality vodka
      juiced                       1lt water
                                      1 cinnamon stick

Boil the sugar and the water in low heat until you get a light syrup. Remove from heat and let it cool in room temperature.

In a clean glass bottle, put the pomegranate juice and the syrup. Lift its spirit by adding the vodka. Spice it up with the cinnamon stick. Mix well.

Let the magic potion still for 3 months to allow the ingredients to blend and exchange their aromas. It is worth the wait!

After 3 months strain the liquer and put it in a nice bottle. Take a sip and taste this amazing liquor. Store it in a cool place.

Serve it to your guests in shot glasses or experiment with creating incredible cocktails.