All Gone Perfectly Pear Shaped...

I really don't get around to doing this as often as I'd like, and the words of encouragement from so many of you who've stumbled across this modest blog have made me feel that I just have to make more effort. It is just so lovely to receive positive remarks from all of you, and very humbling when I see what marvelous blogs many of you are managing to maintain. On Haalo's blog I've also spotted the most brilliant photographs of raw ingredients which will, over time, provide me with endless inspiration for my own little illustrations.

So, now that I've sung a few praises, but not nearly enough, I'd like to praise the pear. Still very good here, as are our apples, and in the season of spice they do enjoy the company of cinnamon, cloves, mace, etc etc. I thought it fitting to try uplifting the pear tart into a more seasonal incarnation and have come up with poaching pears in spiced white wine before laying them on walnut pastry, saving the spiced wine to reduce to a spicy syrup to then fold into crème fraiche to serve with the galette. Sounds good? You bet it is.

And 2 out of 3 of the ingredients feature in the 'Out of the Bag' January challenge on A Slice of Cherry Pie blog so I guess I almost qualify to take part (assuming my illustrations can count as a picture of the dish?). All the best to you and all the others participating...

San's Spiced Pear and Walnut Galettes
for the pears:
3 large pears
1 vanilla pod/1 cinnamon stick/ 2 cloves
150g caster sugar
white wine, to cover

for the pastry:
120 g walnut pieces
60 g plain flour
60 g caster sugar
60 g unsalted butter
pinch of salt

6 dessert spoons of crème fraiche

for the poached pears:
Peel the pears, halve them and remove the core and woody stem with a small, sharp knife. Place the sugar, white wine and the cinnamon stick, cloves and vanilla pod split lengthways into a shallow pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce to a simmer and add the pear halves, cook until tender – turning half way through with a palette knife. Remove from syrup and dry on kitchen paper. Put the syrup back over the heat and reduce to very little then strain and allow to cool before folding in to the crème fraiche.

for the walnut pastry:
Preheat the oven to 180ºC
Place the walnut pieces in a processor and reduce to fine crumbs. Add the butter, sugar, flour and salt and pulse together. Remove and press into a ball and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour before using.

Roll between 2 sheets of cling film – the pastry is very fragile and this is an excellent way of dealing with it – to a thickness of 5 mm then remove the top layer of film and use a pastry cutter to cut 6 discs 8 cm in diameter. Move them to a baking sheet, buttered if necessary.Bake for 7-10 minutes until firm – do not overcook as the walnut becomes bitter to the taste. Place a disc of walnut pastry on the plate, with a small sharp knife slice the pear half several times to within a cm of the top of the pear and fan it across the biscuit, serve with a dollop of spiced crème fraiche.