Caramelized pears with red wine syrup, cardamom ice cream
This recipe uses caramelisation. Another technique to use for fruit and vegetables. I make my ice cream myself, you don’t need to.
Ingredients for 4 people
Pears
2 large or 4 small conference (or other ‘hard’) pears
80 ml red wine 300 ml
80 white wine 300 ml
50 gr sugar 100 gr
1 orange orange
1 lemon
Icecream
tub of vanille ice cream (vegan or normal)
cardamom (ground)
cinnamon (ground)
Optional: walnut crumble
60 gr (plantbased and hard) butter
15 gr walnuts
30 gr powdered sugar
25 gr oatmeal
1 tbsp cinnamon
25 gr flour
pinch of salt
Utensils
zester (great little gadget to create strips of citrus skin). A veg peeler and sharp knife can also do the trick
melonballer or spoon
oven prof dish that can keep the pear halves snug.
Method
Pears
Heat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Slice the pears in two halves. Remove middle with melon baller or spoon. Cut small slice of the 'belly', so that it is stable in the oven dish. (snug open, all pears need to touch the floor). Zest the lemon and orange. (or peel slices of the skin, not the white, and cut in fine strips. Add wine, same amount of water and the strips to the oven dish. Sprinkle all the tops of the pears with the sugar. In the oven until the top is caramelised and the pear is soft, but still with a bit bite (20-40 minutes).
Make the sauce
Remove the pears from the sauce and let cool. Reduce the sauce in a saucepan by 75% until it sticks to the back of the spoon. (thin syrup). Let it cool and add the zest from the oven dish
Icecream
Mix with a spoon the amount of ice you want to use with some ground cardamom and cinnamon to taste. Add some orange zest. Freeze back if needed.
Plating
Oven at 60 degrees. Place 2 pear halves (as small pears, otherwise 1 large) in the oven on the plate you are serving. Should be warm, not sweltering (1-2 minutes). Heat the sauce on a very low fire.
Put crumble on heap on plate (if using, see recipe below. Place pear next to crumble. Put scoop ice cream on crumble). If not using crumble better place ice-cream in separate bowl to avoid melting too soon. Drizzle sauce over pear and decorate with a few strands of lemon and orange from the sauce. Put some sauce on the plate.
Optional crumble
Grind flour, walnuts, cinnamon and icing sugar in a blender. Cut COLD butter into small pieces, pulse through for a few seconds. Mix in oatmeal until you have sand with crumbs left over. Spread on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes. airtight. Until golden brown. Let cool without touching, then break into pieces. Store airtight