Pears

Ah, pears. The fruit that, if weren't for me, Dominic would still not know the pleasure of. I sometimes wonder why they're not more popular, and then I bring one in with my lunch and end up having to clean pear skin and juice off of everything. Delicate when ripe! Stick with apples for lunches!

Tonight, though, it's pears. Rather, it's all for tomororw when a few friends come for dinner. I'm getting some prep out of the way today so that tomorrow will be easier to deal with. I have crepe batter in the fridge (and I may make those up before swimming) and a bowl of a tomato saffron sauce that is meant to go with the crepes. Bread, salad, the rabbit, a cake - all these will come tomorrow instead.

The main event tonight are my pears, however. Karen Barnaby has a a couple of recipes for poaching them in her Pacific Passions cookbook, and though I've made the ones poached in Riesling and served with basil crème anglaise (a great base for ice cream, by the way), I prefer the red wine poached pears.

Ahhhh, the scent even now is maddening. I've poached the pears, and now I'm boiling down the poaching liquid into a thick syrup. I'll keep the pears in it until dinner tomorrow, turning them, basting them, burnishing them. I have modified the recipe, I admit. The first time I made it I forgot to put in the whole cloves, just didn't see them listed. No matter. I've never bothered with them in subsequent instances. Instead, the red wine syrup is redolent of the fresh rosemary, cinnamon (the real stuff, curled up like parchment, a light citrusy scent), and black peppercorns. I make a simple cake to serve alongside because the poaching liquid/syrup deserves something to sop it up.

I'll try to take photos of the dinner tomorrow if things turn out. The syrup is almost done. I believe I shall get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight.