"Feast of Saint Valentine"
Have you ever seen a dish on dessert menus, Instagram, basically
everywhere and feel as if it’s on some French culinary institute unattainable
level? That’s how I once felt about poached pears. The stem is still intact,
the pear is perfectly soaked and it’s so delicious in flavor. Who knew you
could make a poached pear at home with such amazing results?
I have always wanted to try to make poached pears. Pears are
probably my favorite American fruit; especially the brown bosc pears. The sweet
grainy texture of the pear is what I love the most. When I’m in Jamaica I will
admit, I don’t buy them. When I visit the US, I will buy what’s local there,
but I usually only buy fruits grown in Jamaica while I’m at home. I only make exceptions for blog posts and
styling jobs. I am almost sure however, that in future I’ll probably be making
this more often to serve at any family functions and dinner parties for dessert
with ice-cream.
This was a relatively easy recipe to make. It takes time,
but its not something that is hard to do at all. The most tedious part was peeling
the pears, so they looked smooth while keeping the stem intact. This is a versatile
method; the options for poaching liquids seem almost endless. You could soak
your pears in some sweet balsamic, maple, saffron, red and white wine, juices,
star anise, herbs, you name it. Let’s say you don’t have the same teas as I
did, you might have some wine and honey, cinnamon and nutmeg, then your well on
your way to adapting the recipe to what’s in your pantry.
My husband adored the reduced tea until I added the chocolate
chips to it. He was against me adding the chocolate chips. I was like Sir, its chocolate
month, so sorry to disappoint you, but it has to have chocolate in there. I
said that to say this, for all you that are reading this that don’t like
chocolate, feel free to omit this stage, the reduced poaching liquid will make
an amazing sauce for the pears all on its own.
Anyone engaged and need to impress the future mother in law
at the next family dinner….this one is for you!
Ingredients (printable recipe)
3-4 bosc pears
3 cups water
4 tea bags (2 country peach passion 2 raspberry zinger)
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
½ vanilla bean pod
For the sauce
Reduced poaching liquid
2 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
Greedy Tips:
- I used Celestial seasonings herbal teas in the flavors country peach passion and raspberry zinger.
- The chocolate sauce will not stick to the pears, they are too saturated, and their surface is wet, it will just lightly coat the outside and then slide right off. So don’t worry if you see that happening.
- Its best to give it a nice dip and get a thin coating, and drizzle the rest of the chocolate sauce on some ice cream or over the pears sliced
- I highly recommend a strawberry or any other berry flavored ice cream. It really accentuated the underlying berry flavors in the tea and chocolate sauce. Especially if the ice-cream brand has actual berries in the cream, it’s a plus!
- If you want to remove the core of the pear you can use a melon baller and scoop it out from the bottom before the overnight soak.
- Don’t allow the sauce to get too cold before spooning over the pears because it will get slightly hard and sticky. You don’t want it piping hot, just a nice warm to room temp feel.
Instructions:
- In a small pot combine water, teabags, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice salt and vanilla beans
- Bring to boil for 5 minutes
- Peel the pears, keep the stem intact, slice the bottom to it can stand upright
- Reduce the heat and place the pears in the liquid cover and allow it to simmer for 20 minutes
- Make sure to rotate the pears so they soak evenly, I rotated once after 10 minutes
- After 20 minutes remove from the heat and set aside to cool uncovered
- Once cool let it soak overnight in the refrigerator
- Remove the pears from the liquid and place the sauce on the flames to a rich syrupy consistency
- Once the sauce is reduced remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips until melted and the sauce is smooth
- Allow the sauce to cool, then spoon over the pears and serve
No comments:
Post a Comment