Jeanpaul's signature dish: Pears in wine [Stoofpeertjes]

PEARS IN WINE / STOOFPEERTJES / POIRE AU VIN

On special request [and with pain in my heart :-)], I will share today the recipe for my pears in wine dish (Dutch: stoofpeertjes).


First of all, when you  make this recipe, don't hesitate to double or triple the amount. The work is not that much more (except for the peeling part) and you can easily store it in the deep-freezer for a long time.  You can use this as side dish for a fancy christmas dinner, use it as ingredient for cooked desserts, simply eat it with ice or yoghurt or just enjoy its full flavour by eating it straight away.
So it will come in very handy to have some stock available anytime.

Ingredients (per 2 kilo of pears)
- 2 kilos of pears for cooking
   (I strongly favor Gieser Wildeman for its sweet taste, but Saint Rémy or any other pear  that is suitable for cooking and will keep its shape can be used)
- 150 grams of powdered /confectioners' sugar  [Dutch: poedersuiker, French: sucre en poudre]

- 1 bottle of red wine
- half a bottle of port
- 2 packs of vanilla sugar
- 3 cloves [Dutch: kruidnagels, French: clou de girofle]
- 1 cinnamon sticks [Dutch: kaneelstokje, French: baton de cannelle]
- 2  Star anise [Dutch: steranijs, French: badiane ou anis étoilé]

So now that the "mise en place" is ready, we can start the work!
In the pictures you will see the quantities for 4 kilos of pears. Also note: these are not Gieser Wildeman, but home grown pears that I received from my uncle Hans. No idea what race they are, sorry. And yes...they look like apples, but really are proud pears.


















Step 1:  Peel the pears.
This is the most time consuming task. You will end up with a maximum speed of 3 pears per minute and afterwards some cramp, but its worth it. No need to chuck out the seeds or dig in hole on the middle. Leave them intact with the end of the branch still connected. This will make a smashing presentation in any dish.
-> When you are finished peeling, cut around 20% of the pears into quarters.
This is to fill up the space between the whole pears when adding them to the pan. Otherwise you would need double the amount of liquid.

Step 2:  Add pears into a casserole or large pan and add all the other ingredients
Add the whole pears to a large pan, fill all the empty spaces with the chopped pieces of pear
Add the sugar
Add the cloves, cinnamon sticks and the star anise
Add the wine and port
If the pears are not covered by the liquid, you can add some extra port or water

Step 3 :Bring to boil and let the pears simmer on low heat
Bring the pears briefly to the boil and afterwards let them simmer on low heath for at least 3 hours.
After 2 hours you can taste the liquid and add a couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar if you prefer a sweeter taste.

Step 4: You made it, Enjoy!
After 3 or more hours, when  the pears have a nice deep red color, are soft when pinching with a fork but will not fall apart and the liquid has the desired taste of sweetness, you can stop the heat.

Serve directly as they are still warm with yoghurt, vanilla (vla) or ice or next to a nice piece of game meat such as deer.  If you prefer to present it with a bit thicker juice add some starch until you have the desired texture.

Otherwise let the pears cool slowly and store them with the juice in portions in deep freezer or for direct use in the fridge.

Hope you like them as much as we do!
Enjoy
Jeanpaul

Romantic Dinner

There's a funny story about the anniversary of the day Jeanpaul and I met each other. That is: for something like 8 years we've been celebrating it on the wrong day. Lol.
I was convinced it was on the 16th January 2000, and Jeanpaul, who's got a monster memory only not  for birthday dates, hence went by what I believed.... till the day I finnaly set out to make my photo album from Finland and fell on the ticket for the cruise between Helsinki and Stockholm on which we met. Definitely stating it was on January 11, 2000.

Nevertheless... today we have been together for 14 years, a very good reason to celebrate, which we did yesterday with 2 nice little lobsters Jeanpaul had been inspired to buy. It was one of these nice evenings when we cook together. Nice team work. Love that.

So Jeanpaul did 2 preparations of lobster and I improvised a risotto to go with it, making use of what was in the fridge given we need to empty it in view of our upcoming holiday to... South Africa! (This promises some nice culinary discoveries).


Here's what I found for the risotto (for 2 persons): The main idea was to make a very simple risotto and to add the vegetables at the end so that the tomatoes would just be warmed up in the risotto but definitely not cooked. This to make the link with one half of the lobster that was going to be grilled under a layer of diced tomatoes and the other one with parmesan. As for the sage, it's a spice I don't use very often but discovered recently that it's got a huge flavouring power, so I was curious to try. This time I did not put too much of it in the dish so it was absolutely delicious!

Ingrédients:
1 oignon
1 clove of garlic
6 little tomatoes (that's about 250 to 300g)
green asparagus tips (about 200g)
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 cubes of chicken broth (hope this is the right translation for bouillon cube)
100 g of grated parmesan
130 g of risotto rice
olive oil
salt & pepper

Preparation for the risotto:
1 - Bring 1 liter of water and the 2 cubes of broth to boiling temperature. Set aside once it's reached boiling temperature. It's ready to use.
2 - Bring some water to boiling temperature in another pan to peel the tomatoes.
3 - Whilst the water is heating up, chop the onion and peel the garlic clove
Once the water boils, plunge the tomatoes for 20 seconds (for small ones) in the hot water, then put them in a boil with cold water. Keep the boiling water!
3 - Add some salt in the water used for the tomatoes, and cook the asparagus tips it it for 5 minutes. Take the asparagus out of the water and set aside. Now you can throw the water away.
4 -  Whilst the asparagus tips are cooking peel and chop the tomatoes in very little dices. Put them into a sieve to drain
5 - In a pan with olive oil, cook the onion and the grated garlic till the onion is translucent.
6 - Add the rice and mix with onion for a few minutes
7 - I did not do this but aftewards sought I should have: add 20 ml of white wine and mix.
8 - Once the wine is nearly absorbed add a spoon of broth and continue to mix gently till it's nearly absorbed (set your fire at medium level so it does not go too fast)
9 -  Continue to add the broth spoon by spoon while mixing till the rice is cooked (I don't know the time, just taste)
10 - Put 2 of the asparagus tips in the remainder of thebroth to warm them up


11 - Set the fire at a the lowest level, add the parmesan and continue to mix gently till it's smelted
12 - Add the tomatoes and the rest of the asparagus tips (cut in pieces of 1 cm) and mix. After 2 minutes stop the fire.

13 - warm up 2 plates and start dressing. Add the asparagus tips on top of the risotto for decorations.

For the lobster Jeanpaul was inspired by the following 2 recipes:

Lobster in the oven by Peter Goossens
http://www.smulweb.nl/recepten/825884/Kreeft-in-de-oven
The only thing is that we had no basilicum and chive so he used parsley. But it was absolutely gorgeous that way too!!!
Also we had frozen cooked lobster, no fresh lobaster, so he only put the lobster 6-7 minutes in the oven.

The other recipe, Gratin of lobster,  comes from the website of Albert Heijn and was executed without modification
http://www.ah.nl/allerhande/recepten/597476/gegratineerde-kreeft

From a timing perspective if you were to try this combination alone, then start with preparing the lobster till they are ready to go in the oven, then do the risotto, and then put the 2 lobsters for 6 minutes in the oven while you warm up the plates and start serving the risotto.
Avoid at all cost letting the lobster more than the 6-7 minutes in the oven, else it becomes chewy.

And here the pictures of our 2 little fellows before going into the oven and on the plate...

Yummy!!!!