Cooking can be a kind of magic when, for instance, it turns a hard green pear into a fragrant delicacy. English pears, either William or Conference, are still good in these dark months as they store fairly well from the autumn harvests. But they can be very hard and green and take ages to soften in the fruit dish. There are lots of ways to cook them: baked as Pears for instance. Simply stewing pears produces delight, traditionally rich in a red wine syrup spiced with cinnamon but they are also delicious in a light lemony syrup that will allow you to add a sauce, chocolate of course or an unusual favourite, black currant.
Lemon Pears
Choose pears that are not so hard that you cannot cut into them at all. Take one pear per person with perhaps an extra one for luck.
Put about half a pint of water, the juice of a lemon, long strips of the rind and a tablespoon of sugar in a wide saucepan. Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar and then lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Add a vanilla pod if you like. Taste the syrup and make sure it is definitely lemony and sweet enough.
Cut each pear in half and scoop the core out with a teaspoon, leaving the stalk for decoration. Sprinkle a little lemon juice on the cut surfaces if you are not going to put the pears quickly into the pan for any reason.
Lower the halves into the liquid. If the pears are not mostly covered, add a little more water.
Simmer for 20 minutes or longer, just as long as it takes for the pears to become almost translucent. Conference pears are often the hardest snd may take a while. Turn the pieces over as they cook. Test with a skewer that they are all soft.
Take the pears out and carefully put into an attractive dish. Taste the syrup and add lemon if you think it needs it. If it is very liquid, boil hard to reduce it. Pour over the pears. Add the lemon rind and the vanilla pod for decoration. Leave to go completely cold and keep in the fridge.
Now serve with: vanilla ice cream, cream pouring or whipped, yoghurt, chocolate sauce made from good dark chocolate melted with some cream. Any combination of these will turn a simple dish of cold fruit into a classic: Poires Belle Helene is the famous French pud: pears, choc sauce and ice cream. But if you happen to fancy it, or have frozen black currants in the freezer (we have too many from the allotment) or can get a good tin, a surprising combination is pears with black currant sauce. As the great Jane Grison has a recipe for a pear and black currant pie, I feel confident that is not just an odd local idea.
Blackcurrant Sauce
Half a pound of frozen black currants
Tip these into a pan with 2 tablespoons of sugar and let them thaw very slowly until the juice flows and the fruit is soft.
Put the mixture into a food processor and blitz.
Push the result through a sieve.
Now taste and add more sugar, it is bound to need it, but be careful not to lose the fresh sharpness of the fruit. If you use a tin, of course the cooking part is not necessary.
You should have a thick sauce, add a little water only if absolutely necessary. Let it get cold and serve with the pears. It will keep in the fridge for ages and is very good on vanilla ice cream.
Lemon Pears
Choose pears that are not so hard that you cannot cut into them at all. Take one pear per person with perhaps an extra one for luck.
Put about half a pint of water, the juice of a lemon, long strips of the rind and a tablespoon of sugar in a wide saucepan. Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar and then lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Add a vanilla pod if you like. Taste the syrup and make sure it is definitely lemony and sweet enough.
Cut each pear in half and scoop the core out with a teaspoon, leaving the stalk for decoration. Sprinkle a little lemon juice on the cut surfaces if you are not going to put the pears quickly into the pan for any reason.
Lower the halves into the liquid. If the pears are not mostly covered, add a little more water.
Simmer for 20 minutes or longer, just as long as it takes for the pears to become almost translucent. Conference pears are often the hardest snd may take a while. Turn the pieces over as they cook. Test with a skewer that they are all soft.
Take the pears out and carefully put into an attractive dish. Taste the syrup and add lemon if you think it needs it. If it is very liquid, boil hard to reduce it. Pour over the pears. Add the lemon rind and the vanilla pod for decoration. Leave to go completely cold and keep in the fridge.
Now serve with: vanilla ice cream, cream pouring or whipped, yoghurt, chocolate sauce made from good dark chocolate melted with some cream. Any combination of these will turn a simple dish of cold fruit into a classic: Poires Belle Helene is the famous French pud: pears, choc sauce and ice cream. But if you happen to fancy it, or have frozen black currants in the freezer (we have too many from the allotment) or can get a good tin, a surprising combination is pears with black currant sauce. As the great Jane Grison has a recipe for a pear and black currant pie, I feel confident that is not just an odd local idea.
Blackcurrant Sauce
Half a pound of frozen black currants
Tip these into a pan with 2 tablespoons of sugar and let them thaw very slowly until the juice flows and the fruit is soft.
Put the mixture into a food processor and blitz.
Push the result through a sieve.
Now taste and add more sugar, it is bound to need it, but be careful not to lose the fresh sharpness of the fruit. If you use a tin, of course the cooking part is not necessary.
You should have a thick sauce, add a little water only if absolutely necessary. Let it get cold and serve with the pears. It will keep in the fridge for ages and is very good on vanilla ice cream.
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