WHB#265: Poached Pear & Apricot in Red Wine

This post is written for Weekend Herb Blogging #265, hosted by Haalo who had been driving this marvellous concept. And 2011 is the 5th year of WHB! I missed out the last post of 2010 on 20 Dec, but nevertheless, here we go.


But before we start, let me introduce to you a good friend of mine. Someone whom I met through my journey of food. Kinda surreal but we 'knew' each other way back, when I was still in college and taking baby steps in my culinary adventures. At that time I was intrigued by his style of cooking, never did I expect to meet the man in person when I was invited for a tasting at his restaurant and so there we go our friendship blossomed. :)

Executive Chef Clement Ronald Ng

We will be combining our effort to share our passion in food and WHB is our first step. You can read more about Clement here.

Poached Pear & Apricot in Red Wine

This is a special recipe from Chef Clement. And I have to tell you, it is AWESOME.


You will need:
Packham Pear (Peakham Pear)
Honey
Sugar
Red Wine (Shiraz/ Cabernet Sauvignon)
cloves
cinnamon
orange zest
dried apricots


Method:


1.  Skin pears, core the pear from the bottom, leaving the stem. The idea is so that the red wine can be absorbed both ways, from the outside and the inside. Put them into a heavy bottom saucepan.


2.  Add red wine, enough of it to cover the pears. Pick a strong wine like a shiraz and cab sav.


3. Add honey and sugar. Add enough to make it sweeter than you intend it to be. The sweetness will drop as the pear soaks in the liquid.


4.  Boil the pears in the wine, sugar and honey mixture. Add cloves, cinnamon, orange zest and dried apricots. This should take about 20 mins. A good test is to use a cake tester, stick it into the pear. A nicely cooked pear should stick to the cake tester and be easily taken out of the pan. It should slowly slide off the cake tester. And that's your perfectly cooked pear.


5.  Let the mixture cool. Put the pears and apricots into a container and leave it sealed for at least a month.


You can re-use the red wine mixture if you are doing the pears in batches. The explosion of flavours for the pears and apricots will literally blow you (and your guests, if you are generous enough to share) away. Serve with vanilla ice-cream.


Enjoy.

Weekend Herb Blogging - Boiled Chinese Yellow Pear with Chinese Almond Dessert

Mr Pancakes is getting the hang of it and is excited every time WHB comes around. What a great way to share! This week's Weekend Herb Blogging#212 will be hosted by Laurie from Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska. WHB is a weekly food blog event that showcases information and recipes about herbs, vegetables, fruits and other plant ingredients. WHB is organized by Haalo of Cook(almost)AnythingAtLeastOnce. The rules for taking part can be found here.
For this week, Mr Pancakes would like to share a all-Asian cast: Boiled Chinese Pear with Chinese Almond Dessert.


The Chinese Yellow Pear is used here as the main ingredient.  A picture of the pear can be seen here, Mr Pancakes is ashamed that he forgot to take a picture of the fruits before cooking them.  The yellow Chinese pear has a thin yellow skin.  The white flesh is slightly grainy, as compared to the green pears. It is oblong, unlike the Asian (nashi) pear.  It is believed that the yellow chinese pear relieves cough and calm wheezing.


Another main part of this dessert the Chinese Almond (杏仁) or apricot seed.  There are two types of chinese almond, mainly those from the south (sweet taste) and the north (bitter taste).  The Chinese almond seeds from the north is believed to have similar properties to the yellow Chinese pear, they stop cough and 'moisten' the intestines. A mixture of north and south Chinese almond seeds are used here to balance the taste.

A sweet, 'cooling' dessert and apparently to relieve cough and irritation to the throat


Boiled Chinese Yellow Pear with Chinese Almond (炖雪梨)
This is a long time childhood dessert. All kids love sweet stuff! This is a healthy, nutritional dessert and it cleanse the palate nicely, especially after a heavy meal.

You will need: (serves 4)


2 yellow Chinese Pears
50 gram rock sugar
500ml water
8 Chinese red dates (optional)


1.  Peel the skins off the pears, core and cut into quarters.
2.  Bring water to boil in a pot.
3.  Put all ingredients into the pot and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.
4. Serve hot or put into the fridge to chill and serve cold.