Pears 2008 Harvest

My Grandfather, Charles Skinner, planted dwarf Bartlett pear trees in the orchard behind the farm house. These trees were neglected after his death in 1986, and for the past four years, I have been nursing these trees back into production. The first two years provided the deer with a steady diet. Last year, the pears were still very deformed, but it seems the pruning has paid off. While the pears have a few blemishes, they are a decent size and uniformly shaped this harvest.
Last weekend, I harvested approximately three bushels. The first recipe I prepared was an old standard, a pear tart. The recipe I use is one committed to memory from a Frugal Gourmet book (If I recall correctly, this recipe has a long history, but not one I can recount from memory.). It is such a great recipe because you can really use it as a staple and just experiment with different fruit and jelly combination. I'll start with the recipe here:

Dough:
1 1/2 c. flour
1 and 1/2 stick of butter
3 T. of confectioner's sugar

The butter is kept at room temperature. I did try it once with cold butter; I thought it would turn out flaky. Combine ingredients with a pastry blender or fork. My recommendation is to resist using a mixer. The pastry blender may take a little more time, but it's worth it in the long run. Just when you have went from a stage where you have a crumbly dough to one that looks more like a ball, then you cover with plastic and set aside in the refrigerator to chill.

Slice your fruit. In this case, I used my freshly picked pears. I then melted apricot jelly in saucepan; then set both the sliced fruit and melted jelly aside.

Back to the dough. You can press your dough into a tart pan, or you can roll it out between two pieces of parchment paper with a chilled, marble rolling pin. Then cut the dough and press it into the tart pan that way. You just have a little more control with rolling out the dough, and it looks more uniform. You'll bake the tart for 10 minutes without the fruit; just till it begins to turn golden . . . not brown. Remove the tart from the oven and arrange the fruit slices. You can fan them in a spiral around the pan moving outwards in concentric circles. Then w/ a pastry brush; brush the melted jelly (apricot in this case) over the fruit. Sprinkle sugar over the fruit and return the tart to the oven for another 20 minutes. This tart crust takes a while to cook; just when you think it's done try to give it another 5 minutes. Just keep an eye on it and you'll be fine.

More pears? I also prepared poached pears. I love simple ingredients that really intensify really beautiful flavors that is why I have longed to poach pears in wine. I'm not sure where I got this recipe; it is pretty much everywhere. I had white wine on hand, but I think it is more traditional to use red wine. First peel the pears. I did this with a potato peeler leaving the stem.
I placed my pears stem up in a sauce pan then covered them with wine. I threw in a handful of sugar and brought the wine to a boil reducing to a simmer for 20 min. Remove the pears and reduce the remaining liquid by half to create a syrup. I can't wait to try this recipe with red wine and perhaps a little fresh cream for a garnish to the syrup. I think I may steep fresh mint in the cream to provide a little depth of flavor to the cream.

So that was last weekend, this weekend is cheese and rose water. Not together. I plan on making cheese. I bought a bottle of rose water with the intention of making something; I don't know what yet. Perhaps a butter cookie with rose water icing or rose water candied peanuts served with a cardamom iced tea. Here is the recipe from Gourmet magazine that I found for the peanuts:


Rose-Water Candied Peanuts
Serves6

* Active time:15 min
* Start to finish:35 min

April 2007
Food editor Maggie Ruggiero was served rose-scented candied peanuts and mint tea on the rooftop of the home of a Toubkal local. It turned out to be one of the best-tasting snacks she’d ever had.

* 3/4 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup water
* 1 3/4 cups dry-roasted peanuts
* 1 1/2 teaspoons Middle Eastern rose water

*
Line a baking sheet with foil. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Stir in peanuts and boil, stirring frequently, until syrup thickens, about 8 minutes. Reduce heat to moderately low and stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt. Continue cooking, stirring and scraping any bits of crystallized sugar from side of pan into mixture (it will become very gritty), until sugar is golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes more. (Sugar will still be gritty.)
*
Remove from heat and stir in rose water. Spread nuts on foil to cool completely, about 20 minutes.

Cooks’ note: Nuts keep in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week.

Recipe by Maggie Ruggiero

Photograph by Martyn Thompson

I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.