Poached Pears

Pears can be complicated and maddening to some. Either the first bite reveals tender fruit with a flood of sweet juices, apple-like crispness, or something unpleasantly mealy and bitter. 

But under-ripe pears are an ideal ingredient in cooking, especially for poaching. Poaching slightly under-ripe pears makes them tender and sweetens them, while allowing them to maintain their structure. Once poached, they can be served warm or cold, garnished with a caramel reduction of the cooking liquid, and accompanied with everything from ice cream to whipped cream to yogurt. But since properly poached pears also retain that residual acid to balance the sweetness, they become an amazing and versatile ingredient for other dishes, like appetizers or salads, as a garnish for soups like pumpkin or butternut squash, or a surprising paring with entrées like roast chicken, braised curries, or stews. 

The not-too-sweet poaching liquid in this recipe features a star–and, no doubt, not cheap–ingredient: saffron. It gives the liquid and the pears a gorgeous sunny color, but also a flavor that works as well with cheese or greens as it does with vanilla ice cream. The saffron is optional; it is expensive, but we think it's worth it for this dish. If you want an affordable swap, use ground turmeric, which will give you some of the color and a more subtle flavor.

You can store the pears in the syrup in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Made this? Let us know how it went in the comments below.