Shhh! We’re giving away our special best Ellesmere House poached pear recipe for you to make at home.
We’ve just received a wonderful review from a set of guests who specifically mentioned our breakfast pears. “They are delicious,” they said “and we were lucky enough to be there when they were serving them.” It took us by surprise as normally it is our coffee, granola and Martin’s legendary scrambled eggs that get a mention.
We don’t really think about what we put on the table, we just sure we have a set of delicious concoctions that will prepare people for their day using what we can source from the garden or locally.
Every morning we put out an array of compotes which usually includes a summer fruit mix which doubles up as a jam (great for croissants), spiced apricots prepared with ginger, honey, maple syrup and cinnamon (always popular) and a “winter” compote which includes figs, goji berries, dates and such like. In summer we always do a strawberry jam compote.
Recently Martin brought back some fabulous pears from our local greengrocer and so I poached them for breakfast and they’ve proved really popular as the review reveals so I give anway our special recipe here. People love them on their own with yoghurt or added to our home-made granola.
Poaching pears is easy. First, I peel the pears, slice them in half (keeping the stalks on at the top as it looks good), and scoop out the pips with a melon ball utensil. I make a syrupy with sugar, honey, maple syrup and water, sometimes adding apple juice if it has gone slightly over (ie fizzy) for the table and on the last occasion I put in some prune juice.
Simply mix the sugar content (honey, maple, syrup, sugar) and water together and bring to the boil. I always use unrefined sugar (non-bleached) and sometimes rock sugar which is sugar gives it a softer sweetness.
Add the peeled pears to the liquid syrupy mixture (it is better to used slightly less ripe pears here as they retain their firmness that way).
You can also add whatever seasoning you like - I frequently include star anise and cinnamon. Recently I also included turmeric and a touch of pepper (to release the beneficial effects of turmeric) which gave the pears a wonderful warm sunlit colour.
Let the pears simmer until they are soft - roughly 10-15 minutes. Remove the pears and then let the liquid bubble down into a syrup type mixture. Serve when cool.
Enjoy!