Roasted Caramel Pears with Crème Fraîche and Toasted Pistachios

Want to make a dessert that's dead easy and delicious, where the main part of the dish is comprised of two ingredients (pears and brown sugar) and makes it own sauce? Well, this just might be the one.

Lynn and I saw this on one of Joanne Weir's cooking shows and looked up the recipe on her site. We made it for my birthday dinner and periodically rave about it. We're making it as a Thanksgiving dessert, in lieu of pie, because we never seem to get to the pie on Thanksgiving.

For this recipe, I used crème fraîche instead of the called-for Marscapone, omitted the honey and used toasted, ground pistachios instead of pecans. I like the slight sour-ness to the crème fraîche, I think adding honey to it is overkill and toasted pistachios give a little crunch, texture and nutty flavor to the dish.

This is not a regular "Sweet Sunday" recipe, but I used the pears for a "Sweet Sunday" tart recipe that will be posted very soon.

Selecting Pears & Pear Care

The original post from which I adapted this recipe calls for Bartlett pears. For my version, I chose Bosc pears. Bartlett pears will release more liquid and be much softer when completely cooked. Just make sure they are barely ripe when you're ready to prepare your dish or your roasted Bartlett pears will be mushy.

Bosc pears have a golden brown, matte and somewhat rough-feeling peel.

 I know there are other baking-appropriate pears out there, but I chose Bosc pears. They don't have the gold-and-rosy sexy blush of Bartlett and other pears but they are a workhorse when it comes to baking. When ripe, they are firmer than most other eating pears. To test for ripeness, press gently near the stem and if it gives to that gentle pressure, it's ready to use. Ripen pears in a warm, room temperature place outside of the refrigerator and test daily for ripeness. Once ripe, store in the coldest spot in the refrigerator, uncrowded and in a single layer - but not in the crisper, they are too easily bruised.

Because pears ripen from the inside out, ripe fruit will give gently to gentle pressure near the stem. Waiting until pears are soft around the middle may indicate over ripeness.

Toasting Pistachios

I read about a technique to toast pine nuts on Alton Brown's blog using the microwave and a paper bag. Although it worked - and I have ruined many a batch of pine nuts by being distracted for just a few seconds too many - the pine nuts were too uniform in color for me (yeah, I'm weird) and I think too much salt clung to them for my taste. I'm going to try it again with a shorter time in the microwave and less salt.

Raw, shelled pistachios, pre-toasting.

However, I love it for toasting pistachios and I used less salt than when I used this method for pine nuts and I was very happy with the results. The pistachios are just lightly toasted (retaining their beautiful color) and lightly salty. This method can be found below the main recipe for the roasted pears.

RECIPES:
 - ROASTED CARAMEL PEARS with CRÈME FRAÎCHE and PISTACHIOS and
 - MICROWAVE TOASTED PISTACHIOS

Infused Spirits and Shrubs Part 1: Getting Started

Raspberry-vodka infusion

 Infused Spirits
I very rarely make dishes with summer fruit that extend beyond washing them and standing over the sink to eat them - or eating them out on the front stoop, but that requires remembering to bring out a damp paper towel. If you're at the sink, no problem if you have drips and your hands get sticky, but... I had a hankering to make some infused spirits, and jumped in on the last bit of the main berry season.

Since it will take a few weeks for the infused spirits to get the the point where I can tell whether they're good or I give them as Christmas presents (KIDDING!), I'm going to refrain from posting recipes. I'm also thinking "infused spirits" rather than making a sweet, liqueur-type drink. When it comes to drinks - alcoholic or non-, my preference does not run towards sweet drinks. My default cocktail (cosmos w/my seesters notwithstanding) has one ingredient: bourbon, and (sometimes) ice - if that qualifies as an ingredient. I will taste the infusions, and decide where I want to go with that. I really don't want to end up with something that tastes like cough syrup. There are dozens of methods out there for any one infusion so I'm flying in the dark on this.

Right now, I have blackberry, raspberry and blueberry infusions sitting in a lower cupboard and am going to prepare a lemon infusion today. Oh - I also have a kumquat infusion that has been sitting there since June. It's doing fine, it's just taking a long time as I wanted only the essential oils from the peel and not much of the tart juice and I refused to strip the zest off of 20 kumquats.

My new favorite way to (temporarily) label jars and containers - blue painter's tape.

Shrubs
(See Part 2: here)

While I was doing research online and checking books about infused spirits, I kept running across "shrubs" and seeing references to shrubs: recipes for mixing fruit with sugar and then vinegar, mixing fruit with rum or brandy, sugar and (sometimes) wine - to be used to add to both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. At first I thought vinegar sounded like crazy talk but as I read more, I figured that if they were nasty, we wouldn't be still be using them.

The word "shrub" (applied to a beverage) derives, at least in part, from the Arabic word "sharab" which - as far as I can tell - and I heartily apologize to any Arabic speakers for any errors - means "to drink". Other "sharab" related English words are "syrup" and "sherbet". Perhaps the earliest time it appeared in a dictionary is 1747 in the Oxford English Dictionary as, "...any of various acidulated beverages made from the juice of fruit, sugar and other ingredients, often including alcohol".

Blackberry shrub syrup: I'll let it sit in the refrigerator for a week, then taste.

Stepping back in time a bit, punch (likely from the Indian word "panch" and Hindustani for "five") was originally made from five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water tea and/or spices and named "paantsch". This drink was brought to England in the early 17th century and was made with a wine or brandy base. Then, around mid-century, Jamaican rum started being used. By the last quarter of the century documents make reference to punch houses (Wikipedia, "Punch (drink)"). Ye olde English folke brought punch to the American colonies. There's an interesting article I just remembered from Saveur on punch. Fortunately, the article (along with some of the recipes in a sidebar) is available online here.

In New England, shrub advertisements appear as well as recipes in early to mid-18th century. You could certainly buy lemons and oranges (I'm pretty sure they weren't cheap) but buying a bottle of shrub that would keep on the shelf was probably more economic. Making your own, even more so. Having a bottle of purchased or homemade shrub on the shelf meant you were well on your way to punch. Today, having some shrub on your shelf means you are on your way to a refreshing drink or cocktail.

 For the shrubs I've started so far (blackberry and raspberry), I settled on a non-alcoholic 'cold process' (Serious Eats: Cold-Processed Berry Shrub and Cocktail 101: How to Make Shrub Syrups) for these two batches rather than cooking the fruit together with the sugar and then adding the vinegar. Again, I think I'll taste before I make any recipe recommendations. I'm going to try a couple of variations in my next two batches - strawberry and lemon - as well.

Kumquat: The Inside-Out Citrus (...that's not necessarily citrus)

References to kumquats (gam gwat - golden orange) can be found in Chinese literature in the 12th century.  Kumquats preserved in salt and stirred into hot water are a Cantonese remedy for a sore throat.

They are neither an orange nor are they consistently identified as citrus. They are classified in the genus Fortunella, named for Robert Fortune, the Scottish botanist. Fortunel brought the 'nagami' (oval kumquat) to the West in the mid-1800's and it remains the type. Other types are: the meiwa, the marumi and the Hong Kong kumquat. (From: Saveur)

I'd seen them around over the years, but I had NO clue what to do with them and if I'm to be honest, I'll tell you that I wondered why the hell you'd go to the necessary trouble to peel something so small (Oh! Ignorant! DivinaLoca!).

I buy my avocados at the Brokaw Farms stand at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market. They mostly grow avocados but they grow and sell other fruit, notably delicious Gold Nugget mandarins, blood oranges, cherimoya (these are amazing- and another "Who knew?" moment after I  popped my cherimoya this winter) guavas and meiwa kumquats. Will's are the only kumquats I've knowingly eaten, but I've read that the meiwas are sweeter than other varieties.

One morning I bought a handful. When I got them home I cut one open, surprised at the tiny amount of pulp compared to the peel, and seeds - there were two or three seeds per kumquat. In the spirit of "What the hell", I popped one in my mouth.

SourSweetAromatic~Wow!~ButTheSweetIsComingFromThePeel~WOW! Seeds were no bother, I just crunched right through them. I buy them every week now when they're available but like strawberries, I never seem to get around to doing anything with them, I just eat them.  Last night, Liz (of Today's Special) posted that she, "...sliced [them] in a salad with toasted walnuts and shaved Piave cheese..." I might actually stop the hand-to-mouth repetition for that.

Other recipes I'm looking at are:

• Kumquat Compote with Sauternes and Ginger (Epicurious)
• Kumquat Mango Jam (Prospect: The Pantry)

What about:

• Salsa - with kumquats, red onions, cilantro, and maybe a little chipotle in adobo?
• Vodka-Kumquat infusion? Kumqua'cello?
• Lamb stew with kumquats and olives?
• A warm salad of lightly sauteed chard with kumquats and shallots?

Although it has already passed (it is held in late January), Florida has a kumquat festival or you can watch a cute-bordering-on-annoying video on how to eat a kumquat on YouTube, or you can just trust me and when you see them, buy a few and just pop one in your mouth.

Roasted Meyer Lemon Slices

You can use any type of lemon.  I prefer Meyers or any type with a thin-ish peel (and therefore less pith). I recently used these (chopped up) in a kale, olive and caper recipe (to be posted) and am planning to pop them into a variety of dishes.  I store mine in a zip-lock bag with a little olive oil slurped in to keep them pliable.

Recipe: Roasted Meyer Lemon Slices