My love of the French language began when I was about 5 years old. My grandmother was babysitting me while my parents were out on a date. I don’t remember anything from that night except for one very vivid thing. The lights went out in the whole neighborhood – a brown out. When I was five years old, my grandmother was 82. To avoid falling, she pulled me into my parent’s big waterbed and began to teach me my first French song.
“Marie Chamberlain voulez-vous danser?
Non, non, non mes pieds me font mal.”
That’s all it took. I was hooked. As long as I can remember, I spent hours and hours learning French. It became a family joke. Instead of “merci beaucoup”, my father would tease me by saying “merchee bugpoop”. When I was a teenager and I would very dramatically roll my eyes, my family would say I was rolling my eyes in French. I took French all 4 years of high school and my teacher would tell my parents I was filled with the joie de vivre.
I’ve lost a lot of my vocabulary over time due to lack of use. There aren’t too many people in Utah who I can talk to that I’ve found. I’ve been refreshing as I have time on Duolingo. Thank goodness for the internet.
We’ll Prepare and Serve with Flair a Culinary Cabaret!
Day three of my Be Our Guest series is a Honey Poached Pear Tarte en Flambe is definitely food with insane flair! I mean, you can light it on fire. I’ll tell you that I don’t bother lighting it on fire, because it doesn’t do anything for the flavor, it is just for show. My youngest son calls this a comfort dessert – it is warm and comforting with the honey, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves but it is a dessert as good as pie. I really love it. And I’m sure you will too.
Poached Pears Should Only Be Done Sous Vide
I can just hear people saying, but poached pears can be done on the stove top so much faster. Yes, but can you control the temperature of the poaching liquid as perfectly on the stove as you can with a sous vide? No? I didn’t think so.
I can’t begin to tell you how often I overcooked pears when I was doing it on the stove top. They get so soft and mushy and just fall apart when they are overcooked and you end up more with (really good tasting) pear puree instead. Since I got my sous vide, I’ve never had that problem – and I make this dessert quite often when we are having guests over because it impresses them and it is so easy.
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 70 minutes |
| Passive Time | 70 minutes |
| Servings |
servings
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- 4 cups water
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup honey
- 1 small lemon halved
- 3 cinnamon sticks 3 inches
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 cardamom pod cracked open
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry thawed
- 1 Immersion Circulator
- 1/2 cup rum 90 proof
Ingredients
Special Equipment Required
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- Preheat water bath to 175°F (75°C).
- Core pears from bottom, leaving stems intact. Peel pears; cut 1/4 in. from the bottom of each to level if necessary.
- In a large saucepan, combine the water, sugar, honey, lemon halves, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, and vanilla bean paste. Bring to a boil until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
- Place pears in a large zipper lock or vacuum seal bag. Add honey syrup and seal the bag using the water immersion technique or a vacuum sealer on the moist setting. Place in the water bath and set the timer for 1 hour.
- When the timer goes off, remove the bag from the water bath. Carefully remove the pears from the bag and transfer to a plate. Cool slightly. Preheat air fryer to 350 F or oven to 400 F.
- Unfold puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut into 1/2-in.-wide strips. Starting at the bottom of a pear, wrap a pastry strip around pear, adding additional strips until pear is completely wrapped in pastry. Repeat with remaining pears and puff pastry.
- Transfer to a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 F in air fryer for 8-10 minutes or 400 F in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Meanwhile bring reserved poaching liquid to a boil; cook until liquid is thick and syrupy, about 10-15 minutes.
- Place pears on dessert plates and serve with vanilla ice cream. Drizzle pear & ice cream with syrup and sprinkle with rum. Carefully ignite the rum table-side with the lights turned low. Let the alcohol burn out before serving.
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