Sassy Radish

Oh mid-December with your mercurial weather! I cannot figure you out! Are you freezing cold with temperatures nearing zero or are you the kind of December that lingers in the forties, rainy and damp, like this morning? Do I put on a pot of soup and curl up with a book dressed head to toe in fleece, or do I just go into deep hibernation mode? Because either of these choices is making me want to stay indoors and make lovely things in the kitchen and then eat them, but there’s also deep desire to make good friends with my couch is just sooooo overwhelming. Not terribly ambitious, am I? You see, inside my head, I am cooking all kinds of things for the holidays: cookies and cupcakes and brittles and toffees. But in actuality, I can’t even bring myself to put the book down and wash my dirty pot from last night. I promise, I’ll do it as soon as I post this.

But, here’s what I really want to do. I don’t to tell you about poached pears. No. But, I do want to invite you over, sit you at my table and serve these pears to you still warm from the stove, in a deep, pretty bowl. With a soup spoon at your side. Because a dessert spoon just won’t do here. Instead of telling you about this pear compote, I want to eat it with you, share it with you, rather than wax poetic about how amazing the house smells when you cook it. You can read about the smell, but you can’t smell it in real time, right? Nor can you lick the screen of your monitor and really know what it tastes like, either. And I so hate being a tease.

What can I tell you about these pears? Well, for one, pears are one of the few fruits that truly look alluring at the market this time of year so you should, as they say, make hay while the sun shines. Perhaps because so much of the other fruit is so meh right now, I am finding pears impossible to resist. I like to think of them as a true winter fruit – they’ve got a flowery sweetness combined with a woodsy earthiness. And ever-so-versatile, pears lend themselves well to standing in as a snack, sneaking into a cake, or brightening a salad. Or just letting themselves be gently poached and served as they are, or as an accompaniment to a very wintry cake.

You might even forget the gray, rainy skies outside while you’re having it. It’s that good, that comforting and so easy to make that you might just find yourself returning to this recipe over and over again. I know I certainly will be. And while we can’t all sit at my dining room table eating these out of deep bowls with soup spoons, we can at least pretend that we can, bound together by this simple dessert, across stateliness, country borders and oceans. It’s the next best thing.

Vanilla & Star Anise Poached Pear Compote
Inspired by “From Simple to Spectacular” by Jean George Vongerichten and Mark Bittman

Ingredients:
4 pears, preferably Anjou
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 vanilla beans
1 star anise seeds

Preparation:

1. Peel and core the pears. Combine the sugar and 5 cups of water in a saucepan large enough to hold the pears. Split the vanilla beans the long way and scrape out the seeds; add both seeds and pods along with star anise to the water. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.

2. Add the pears and adjust the heat so that the mixture bubbles, but n ot too vigorously. Cook for 8 minutes, or until a thin-blade knife inserted into the pears meets with little resistance.

3. Let the pears cool in the liquid for 30 to 60 minutes (an hour longer is okay too; do not refrigerate).

4. When cooled, finely dice the pears.

5. Reserve and strain the cooking liquid. Boil until reduced to a thickish syrup – about 20 minutes and let come to room temperature. Serve with the pears as a side to the cake.

Note: the leftover syrup is PERFECT for an infusion for a Christmasy cocktail with vodka and seltzer and a tiny slice of pear.