AFAM - Pomegranate and ginger muffins

For February, Sra of When My Soup Came Alive is hosting A Fruit A Month, and has chosen the pomegranate as the star.

The pomegranate is another unusual and beautiful fruit, with its soft curves and smooth, magenta skin hiding its treasure of ruby jewels. My earliest memory of pomegranates comes, not from actual knowledge of the fruit itself, but from reading The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis. Even though I had never seen a pomegranate, I was intrigued by how exotic it sounded, and (wrongly) imagined that it might be something like a fig.

I only tried pomegranates for the first time about 12 months ago after seeing them used in cooking demonstrations at The Harvest Picnic. This is only the second time that I have cooked with a pomegranate. Fortuitously, I had bought one on a whim with the dragon fruit before I knew about the subject of this month's AFAM - fate had played a hand! I might have missed this event altogether if I hadn't seen the gorgeous pomegranate salad from The Happy Cook at My Kitchen Treasures.

For my entry, I have made pomegranate and ginger muffins, the recipe for which I found after a quick Google search at Plain Cook.com. If you are interested in this recipe, you can find it here.

These muffins are pleasant tasting, with the sharp, crunchy pomegranate seeds and the chewy sweet heat of the crystallised ginger making an interesting contrast to the soft, "vanilla" background of the muffin itself. They are also attractive to look at due to the ruby pomegranate seeds and golden ginger pieces. Best of all, these muffins are a doddle to make, as the recipe permits the use of oil instead of butter and there is no need for an electric mixer.

Thanks to Sra for hosting AFAM this month. You can check out the roundup of terrific uses for pomegranates in cooking here.