Poaching fruit in a cooking liquor is a great way to combine the flavours of the fruit. In this dish, I have used lemon in the poaching liquor and pears to poach. I suppose you could try other fruits to poach.
The pastry adds more texture and flavours to the dish. Presentation is a big part of the end product. Making use of the excess pastry to create shapes to bake is a great way to enhance the final dish.
I also reduced the poaching liquor to a syrup to drizzle over the the plate. Be careful with this syrup as it is incredibly hot (sugar heats up more than water). A sprig of mint adds colour to the plate.
Pears in tutus
ingredients
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1
lemon, juice and zest
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½
tsp vanilla essence
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1/2
cup sugar
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1
1/2 cups water
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4
pears, peeled and cored with bottoms trimmed
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1
sheet butter puff pastry
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2
tsp apricot or orange jam thinned with a little boiling water
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Method
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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.
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