Tag: pears

Fig, pear and vanilla jam

I’m still having a great time experimenting with jam flavour combinations. This time, I mixed recipes for fig jam and pear jam, and made this, which was delicious. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1kg dried chopped figs (from Realfoodsource) 
  • 1.2 litres of water
  • 160ml lemon juice
  • 1.2 kg sugar
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1.2 kg pears 

METHOD:

  • Start with preparing the figs. Put the figs with 1 litre of water into the main jam pan, and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and leave them to stand to absorb water. 
  • Next, peel, core and chop the pears. I used my melon-baller to remover the cores. In another pan, add 200ml water, bring to a simmer, and then blitz with a soup wand or blender. 
  • Add the pears to the figs, along with the lemon juice, sugar and salt, and heat gently until all the sugar has dissolved. 
  • Boil as fast as you dare until the jam has reached setting point (I use the saucer test and the flake test). Turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla essence
  • Pour into pre-warmed jars and put the lids on while the jam is hot. 

Rhubarb, pear and ginger

Another rhubarb jam revelation. I thought that the pear flavour would be drowned out, but no, this is a winner. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1kg rhubarb stems, chopped
  • 2 pears (around 200g)
  • 50g crystalised stem ginger
  • 1.2kg sugar
  • Juice of 2 lemons, or one lemon, one orange

METHOD:

  • Chop the rhubarb, and chop the ginger, mix and cover with the sugar
  • The next day, add the lemon juice, and the peeled chopped pears. 
  • Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, until the jam is thick.
  • Pour into warmed jars. 

Poached pears with chocolate

We had poached pears with ice-cream and chocolate sauce tonight, inspiration from Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 4 pears
  • 2 heaped tbsp caster sugar
  • a vanilla pod
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 200g dark chocolate
  • ice-cream

METHOD:

  • Pour a litre of water into a large saucepan, add the sugar, vanilla and lemon juice and bring to the boil.
  • Meanwhile peel the pears, halve them and remove the cores with a teaspoon.
  • Add the pears to the boiling syrup, and poach for 15 minutes
  • Allow to cool in the syrup
  • To serve, take 200ml of the syrup, and boil this with the chocolate.
  • Serve the pears over the ice-cream with chocolate sauce poured over the top.

Mashed potatoes and pears with ginger

This is an astonishingly good combination to serve with pork.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Enough potatoes for the number of people being served
  • About half that quantity of hard pears
  • Salt, pepper, butter
  • A tiny amount of finely chopped crystalised ginger

METHOD:

  • Peel and boil the potatoes as you would normally for mashed potatoes. Drain them, saving the boiling water
  • Peel and core the pears, and poach them in the potato water until they are soft
  • Mash the pears and potatoes together with salt, pepper, butter and the chopped ginger