Pears Caramelised in Raspberry Liquor
The topping is intense. This dessert definitely has "wow" factor. The colours are amazing. Served with fresh summer berries and whipped cream: Zowie!!!.
This is a Philip Johnson inspired recipe. He has a great restaurant in Brisbane.
Pears Caramelised in Raspberry Liquor
Serves Four: Just multiply the quantities up for more guests.
Ingredients
Four ripe but firm pears
Two punnets of summer berries, like raspberries or blueberries, for serving
150 gm frozen raspberries for the liquor
60 ml orange liqueur
juice of 1 lemon
one pat of unsalted butter
3/4 cup of caster sugar
3/4 cup of water
600 ml whipped cream
Prepare the Raspberry Liquor
Dissolve sugar in water in a large heavy based saucepan. Place on high heat and boil until it becomes syrupy and turns very light golden. Add the frozen berries and break frozen clumps with a wooden spoon. Bring back to the boil while stirring. Boil to a foam for 1 minute and remove from heat. Allow to cool somewhat prior to blending. [While waiting peel the pears; see next.] When heat has reduced sufficiently, blend the liquor and then strain it. Return the strained liquor to the saucepan.
Caramelise the Pears
Don't allow peeled pears to sit around exposed to the air unprotected. Protect them as follows: Juice the lemon into a large bowl. Peel and quarter the pears. Remove the cores. Coat with lemon juice by tossing them in the bowl. Now they will wait until you are ready for them. NB when you move the pears into the liquor in the saucepan, collect the lemon juice from the bowl, strain if necessary and reserve it for the topping.
[During the following process, if the liquor becomes too thick, add a little water.] Return the raspberry liquor to the saucepan and bring it back to a moderate boil. While heating, add the quartered pears to the heating liquor, sitting them on one side. Bring to the boil and boil gently for 90 seconds. Turn the pears onto each of their other three faces for 90 seconds. That's six minutes total of boiling. Vary this according to the firmness of the pears. Don't make them too soft or too hard.
Finish the Topping
Remove the caramelised pears back to the large bowl whence they came, leaving the raspberry liquor in the saucepan. Add the reserved lemon juice, butter and the orange liqueur to the liquor. Bring back to heat, stir and remove. Steep the pears in the large bowl with all of the topping and set aside to cool. Serve at room temperature or just a little below, e.g. 20C, not cold.
Whipped cream is 600ml of supermarket thickened cream + 1/2 cup caster sugar and 3/4 teaspoonful of vanill essence. Whip until aerated and stiff, but don't let it turn into butter (which can happen quite quickly at the turn).
Serve with fresh summer berries and whipped cream.
Devised for guests one summer evening in April 2009.
Cheers
Swerdna