Honey Poached Pears
There's a version of this dish that turns out grey and falling apart, and a version that comes out of the pot pale, glossy and holding its shape. The difference is almost entirely about how hard you let the liquid boil.
The answer is: barely at all.
Choose the wrong pears on purpose
Firm, slightly underripe pears are what you want. Beurre Bosc or Packham are both good. A ripe pear will collapse before it has taken on any of the spice, and the whole point of poaching is the time it spends in the liquid.
If it gives when you press near the stem, eat it as it is and buy firmer ones for this.
Ingredients
Serves 4
For the poaching liquid
4 firm pears, peeled, halved and cored, stems left on
750ml water
⅓ cup Coastal honey
1 vanilla bean, split lengthways
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
2 wide strips of lemon peel
Juice of half a lemon
To serve
Thick cream, mascarpone or labne
Fresh raspberries
Pistachios, roughly chopped
Jarrah honey, for drizzling
Method
Peel the pears, halve them and scoop out the cores with a teaspoon. Drop them into a bowl of water with the lemon juice as you go, which stops them browning.
Put the water, Coastal honey, vanilla bean, cinnamon, cardamom and lemon peel into a wide pot. Warm it over medium heat, stirring until the honey has dissolved.
Slide the pears in, cut side down. They should be more or less covered. Add a splash more water if not.
Bring it to the barest simmer and then turn it down further. You want the occasional lazy bubble, not a rolling boil. Cover loosely and poach for 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how firm the pears were. They're done when a knife slides in with almost no resistance.
Take the pot off the heat and leave the pears to cool in the liquid. This is where most of the flavour goes in, and it's the step people skip. An hour is good. Overnight in the fridge is better.
If you'd like a syrup, lift the pears out and simmer the liquid down by half until it coats a spoon. Let it cool before you pour it over.
To serve
Spoon a little cream, mascarpone or labne into each bowl. Sit a pear half on top, scatter over raspberries and chopped pistachios, and spoon a little of the poaching syrup around.
Then, off the heat and right at the end, drizzle over the Jarrah.
That last part matters. Everything in the pot has been simmered for twenty minutes, which is fine for the Coastal honey doing the sweetening. The Jarrah goes on cold, where its toffee and malt come through properly against the vanilla and the cardamom. Heat it and you'd never know it was there.
It's the same rule as the salmon. Cook with the everyday honey, finish with the good one.
Warm or cold
Warm in cooler weather, with the syrup still loose.
Chilled through summer, which is arguably better. Make them the day before, keep them in their liquid in the fridge, and they'll be ready when you need them.
Keeping them
They'll sit happily in their poaching liquid in the fridge for four or five days, and they improve for the first two. The syrup is worth keeping on its own as well, over yoghurt or ice cream, or in a glass with soda.