Food Academy 4

Pears in tutus

ingredients

3 lemons, juice and zest

½ tsp vanilla essence

2 cups sugar

3 cups water

4 pears (I used d'Anjous)

1 sheet butter puff pastry

2 tsp apricot or orange jam thinned with a little boiling water

Method

1 Poach the pears; this can be done a day or two ahead. 2 Place the lemon juice, vanilla, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Do not stir. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved. 3 Peel the pears, neatly leaving the stalks intact. Slice the bottoms off so that they sit upright. I don't remove the core but if you prefer to that is fine. 4 Carefully add the pears to the lemon syrup, weight with an inverted saucer to keep submerged. Simmer for 20 minutes or until tender. 5  Store pears in poaching liquor. The poaching liquor is a lovely lemon and pear cordial, great as a soft drink or a cocktail mixer. 6 Cut 4 rounds of pastry and transfer to a lined baking tray. Mark a smaller circle about the size of the base of each pear into each round. Place a pear in the centre of each pastry circle and brush the pear and the pastry with the apricot jam. 7 Bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry has puffed up. Serve with icecream and a little warmed lemon vanilla syrup.