Poached Pears and Flavour Pearls

An elegant dessert of pears poached in a local pinot, wafer thin tuille, and pinot ‘jus’ with Lemon & Black Pepper Flavour Pearls. A simple recipe for your entertaining in the cooler months…

We can’t take the credit for the beautiful photo…our friends from Brooklands Of Mornington served this dish last year for a VIP dinner. Thanks guys!

Pinot poached pear & Lemon & Black Pepper Flavour pearls

Pinot poached pears, ‘jus’ & tuille with Lemon & Black Pepper Flavour Pearls

A great thing about this dessert is that you can have your tuilles and pears prepared well in advance (a couple of days) to avoid that last minute stress on the day of your dinner party!

*make your tuille mix first as it needs to set in the fridge before you can bake them off*

Tuille Biscuits

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

4 egg white

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup flour

*Beat butter and sugar together with an electric mixer. Beat in the egg whites, one at a time then the vanilla.

*Lower the speed and add the flour and mix until just combined. Do not overmix. Cover bowl and chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 165 degrees C.

*Cut a rectangle in a thin piece of cardboard or plastic (the lid of a plastic take away container does the trick) to serve as a template in forming the tuiles. Line a baking tray with baking paper or a silicon mat and place the stencil on it. Using a small off-set spatula (I’m a fan of a paint scraper- kept for cooking only of course!), place a small amount of the batter in the center of the hole of the stencil and spread it out evenly. Carefully lift the stencil off. Repeat until all mix is used.

*Bake in preheated oven until lightly brown around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and while still hot, remove tuiles from the tray (use your paint scraper again) and drape them over a rolling pin. Allow to sit a few minutes to harden and cool. Store in an airtight container.

The Pears and Jus

Cooking time: 15-25 minutes

4 large beurre bosc or 8 small corella pears, firm

2.5 cups red wine – we used a lovely local Mornington Peninsula Pinot

1 1/3 cup white sugar

1 cinnamon stick

2 inch piece of mandarin or orange peel or zest

2 inch piece of lemon zest

* Place the red wine, sugar, cinnamon stick and zests onto the heat to boil in a pot that fits all of the pears snugly upright. Peel the pears and by the time you’ve finished peeling, your wine should be boiling. Add the pears and cook turning three or four times for 15 minutes if Corella pears and 25 minutes if Beurre Bosc pears (check as it also depends on how big your pears are). Remove the pears as soon as they are done to prevent further cooking (you don’t want them to become too soft).

*Taste the syrup and if you want it thicker, then put it back on the boil and reduce until syrupy-anywhere from 5-12 minutes.

To Serve

Simply place your poached pear in the centre of your dish, carefully flood the plate with reduced poaching syrup (jus) and spoon mounds of Peninsula Larder’s Lemon & Black Pepper Flavour Pearls around the pear. Lastly, immediately before serving place your baked tuille on to finish. (if baking tuilles is on the too hard list just purchase something and serve it on the side…a nice spiced cookie would work a treat…a sharing bowl of double cream too)

Best served at room temperature for the fullness of flavours to be enjoyed.

Enjoy

Cheers,

The Peninsula Larder Team