Pom — Hive

Hi folks,

So today I prepared pom after a long time. I have often told you all that I don't like to cook, but my mother asked me to prepare this because she loves it. And for some reason she thinks it tastes better when I prepare it. 😂

I like pom myself. Especially when it's just out of the oven, with warm rice on the side.

It is said that pom is of Jewish origin. It is prepared with the tubers of the plant 'pomtajer'. The tubers are peeled and grated. I don't know exactly how this is done. Nowadays you can buy the grated pomtajer in the supermarket and that is what I always use to prepare my pom.

I decided to share the recipe with you all today. Online you will probably find different recipes of pom, everyone prepares it differently. This is how I prepare it.

What do you need?

1 kg chicken (you can use fillet, my family loves to munch, and also the chicken legs yes, of course without skin🤣)
½ white onion
Pinch of salt
3 garlic cloves
2 bouillon cubes
sweet soy sauce
3 tomatoes
grated nutmeg (1/2 teaspoon)
50 grams butter
1 tablespoon oil
1 kg pomtajer
2 to 3 oranges
2 tablespoons sugar
celery (if you like that)
butter (and possibly flour) to grease your baking pan

*note: this recipe is for 1 kg pom. I made it with 3 kg, because I was cooking for more people. Usually 5 to 7 people can eat out of 1 kg pom. You can also put less meat in it, if you want to.

If you get the pom in the store, it is frozen. So you have to defrost it first. That can take a long time. Sometimes 4 to 5 hours at a temperature of around 30 degrees Celsius. So always take it out of the freezer well in advance. To speed up defrosting, you can always take off the top layers or make stabs in them with a knife. That also helps.

When the pom is thawed, it looks something like this. I was dissatisfied with it because the amount of pom was much less than it should be. Suppliers mix the pom with water in order to sell more. A pity really.

In the meantime, while the pom is still defrosting, you can prepare the chicken.

Put the oil in a pan or wok and heat it.
Add the butter.
When the butter has melted, add the onions, tomatos, garlic, bouillion cubes, nutmeg and sweet soy sauce. Finally, add the chicken and cook until it is half cooked. Be careful not to fry it dry. There should still be gravy in it.

Now mix the juice of the oranges, the sugar and some of the gravy from the chicken with the pom.

Butter the baking tins. I always put flour on them so the pom doesn't stick to the bottom. I made pom from 3 kg pom and spread it over 2 baking tins.

First put a layer of pom in the baking pan, spread the chicken on top, put the rest of the pom on top. The remaining gravy you put all the way on top and then the baking tin can go into the oven at a temperature of 150 degrees Celsius .

In general it can take 2 to 2.5 hours before the pom is done (depending on how high it is). When the pom is almost cooked, you can always sprinkle some celery on top if you wish.

Many people like to let the pom rest for a day first and only then they eat it. According to them it is tastier. I, on the other hand, like to eat it right away when it's still nice and warm.
There are also people who claim that the pom should not be too watery and also not too thick. Personally, it doesn't matter much to me, as long as it tastes good. In this picture the pom still looks a bit watery, because it just came out of the oven and still needs to cool down.