While many recipes are focusing on apples, the darlings of Fall, I've been shining the spotlight on one of my other favorite seasonal fruits: the pear! I recently made a Madagascar Bourbon Bean & Bartlett Jam. It was so tasty and so easy. So, I was really excited that Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories selected Pears + 10 Ways. And I really, really loved that all of those recipes were savory.
In case you don't have a copy of Bittman's book, read his 10 pear salads online here. His pear salsa and relish will certainly be on my table soon. And I do love the combination of pears with fennel. Before I get to my salad, please visit Karen and Wendy's posts this week.
Our Pear Creations
Recipes that poach pears in tea have long intrigued me. There's the Food Network's green tea-poached pears with marscarpone and brittle; Gourmet's tea poached pears with tapioca and satsumas; and The Meaning of Tea's lemon ginger tea poached pears. I decided to make them the centerpiece of my pear salad.
Ingredients
Poached Pears
- 6 C water
- 6 Earl Grey tea bags (or 6 T unbagged tea)
- 6 pears (I used a mixture of bosc and Asian), peeled, halved, and cored
- 1 C raw turbinado sugar
- 4 whole cloves
- mixed salad greens
- chèvre
- Marcona almonds
- olive oil
- aged balsamic vinegar
- freshly ground salt
- freshly ground pepper
Procedure
Poached PearsBring water to boil in medium saucepan. Add tea bag. Remove from heat. Cover and let steep for 10 minutes. Discard tea bags. Add sugar to tea and stir over medium heat until dissolved. Add pears and cloves. Cover and simmer until pears are just tender, approximately 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pears to a bowl. Boil syrup in saucepan until reduced to 3/4 cup, about 5 minutes. Pour syrup over fruit. Chill until cold.
Salad
On a bed of mixed greens, place the poached pears. Fill the hollow with a spoonful of chèvre. Sprinkle almonds over the whole salad. Drizzle the salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add freshly ground salt and pepper to finish off the salad. Serve immediately.
You definitely need to try the salsa. It was amazing. Your pears sound wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI love poached pears....I have never tried tea in the poaching liquid, usually going with wine, but now it is on my to try list.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right, I always equate fall with apples first ,but pears are so tasty too. I can't wait to try this earl grey poached pear recipe.
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