Recipe: purple poached pears plated pleasantly perfect

Definitely poached pears are one top drawer dessert, and without a doubt it is one of the easiest desserts you could ever make. Poached pears with a red wine caramel and creme anglaise only takes time to make it nice. You will read a lot of recipes that will tell you to poach the pears for about 15 minutes or so but to really get them tender and tasty I suggest no less than 45 minutes at a nice steady simmer.

So how do you make these? Easy. Get some bosc pears and peel them and cut the bottom so they standup. Fill up a nice flat bottomed pot with red wine and about a 1/4 ratio of water to wine to cover the pears - so for example: one bottle of wine and a 1/4 bottle of water. Season the liquid with orange peel, lemon peel, cinnamon, star anise, clove, a bay leaf and some sugar - you need to taste the liquid to make sure it is tasty but dont go crazy tasting this delicious elixer or you wont have anything to poach the pears in. Simmer pears in this liquid for 45 minutes then let them cool in the poaching liquid over night. Update: Ciao Chow Linda asked if the poaching liquid travels up the pear and I now realize my photo might suggest that the pears remained upright but they do fall over and I did gently move them about during the simmering process

The next day gently remove the pears and reduce the liquid until it is a nice thick caramel and let the pears come up to room temperature.

This is a pear in the unreduced liquid.

Make a creme anglaise, which is a nice vanilla sauce made with milk, cream, egg yolks and vanilla bean.   Put some of the wine caramel on a plate, put some creme anglaise on a plate and put a pear on top of the sauces and garnish with a mint leaf and you are good to go.

Invite 35 of your best friends over to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Poached pears will be on your menus - I guarantee it! Oh and dont forget to check out my latest post at Char-Broil.

We have a winner - Bobby Flay signed a book and I gave it away

Nothing was more easy to win than this cookbook signed by Bobby Flay and Kim Bee was the lucky winner who made me a winner too.

When I contacted Ms. Kim Bee to let her know she had won she asked if I could sign the book too - how cool is that? Congratulations Kim Bee and thanks for making me cool too!

Bobby Flay is in the house! - so to speak - its a giveaway

What would be the next best thing to having Bobby Flay in your kitchen? That would be having Bobby Flay in your kitchen thats what! Its the 15th anniversary of the Mohegan Sun and I am giving away a signed cookbook by Bobby Flay! You might have had a chance to eat at his restaurant Bar Americain well now you have a chance to win a signed Bar Americain cookbook!



Check out some of the fun.

So how can you win? Easy. Leave a comment telling me why this would be the coolest thing in your kitchen because the coolest thing in your kitchen now is_____________? I will pick the best one and if they are all good then I will use random.org because I am fair like that. Good Luck!

Disclaimer: I wasnt compensated in any way to give this cookbook away - I did it because I wanted to.

Raviolis are easy so make some

Raviolis are such a fun way to kick up a pasta dish and they are easy to make. You might be a little intimidated by the idea of making your own fresh pasta but there is really no reason to fear - its easy and once you have made the pasta then raviolis are inches away.

Basic pasta is egg and flour but this pasta has boiled carrots, I boiled the carrots until they were soft then I incorporated them into the egg and flour mixture. You can use spinach, butternut squash - you could even use peanut butter, if you were so inclined.

Make the dough, roll out the dough and fill the dough - thats ravioli. You can watch this video for a little more of the tutorial,



Now, you dont need me to tell you that the best part about making ravioli is eating ravioli.

Go make some pasta and stuff it! Ravioli of fresh carrot pasta with a crab filling served with a pepperoncino arrabiatta sauce with cream, basil oil and crab roe - complexity with simplicity and layers and layers of flavor!

chicken fingers with a panko basil crust and two chutneys - how's that for specific?

So if you havent been paying attention or if you just so happen to live under a rock then I am here to tell you that it is officially "Appetizer Season" thats right its that time of year when we take many small bites. Cocktail party after cocktail party as we wind our way towards January 2. Why January 2? January 2 is the unofficial end of "Appetizer Season" thats why.  Here are two easy breezy little noshes to dazzle and impress. Chicken fingers are the same as chicken nuggets - you take ground chicken and flavor it up then you bread it with a mix of basil and panko and instead of frying these you bake them. Serve them nice and warm with a little mango chutney and a little tomato chutney - a nice mix of sweet, tart, savory and tangy makes these little nuggets of gold.

How about a little twist on the deviled egg? Get some little croustades from Siljns and fill them up with your favorite style of deviled egg. This is the entire egg pureed with a little curry powder and a dab of mayonnaise piped into a crispy little cup, garnish with some bits of carrot and parsley or you can use a little crab roe to really make them nice.

Stay tuned as we go through this season of nibbles I will be posting more easy to do little appetizers.