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Sweeten the menu with pears

WHAT'S not to love about pears? Fragrant, curvaceous and delicious, they're wonderful in both sweet and savoury recipes - the tricky part is getting them to be ripe when you're ready to use them.

WHAT'S not to love about pears?

Fragrant, curvaceous and delicious, they're wonderful in both sweet and savoury recipes - the tricky part is getting them to be ripe when you're ready to use them.

Buy firm pears a few days before you need them and let them ripen at room temperature (pears ripen only after being picked, so most of the fruit you find in stores will be hard and not yet ready to eat). To check for ripeness apply gentle pressure to the neck of the pear; if it yields, it's ripe. But you don't want them to be too soft; if they are they'll disintegrate when cooked.

My pear of choice for cooking is the dusky russetcoloured Bosc; it's sweet and slightly crisp when ripe and its firm texture holds up well when cooked. I find Bartletts too difficult to catch at the peak of perfection - wait one day too long and they're mushy and mealy. Anjou pears are also a good choice.

PEAR AND BLUE CHEESE FLATBREAD

Pears and blue cheese are a heavenly combination; this makes a nice quick weekday meal. Serve with a crisp green salad and a glass of white wine!

2 tsp olive oil

3 cups thinly sliced yellow onions

Prepared pizza dough, approx. 20 oz. (you can find this at Whole Foods)

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 firm ripe pears, thinly sliced

½ cup crumbled blue cheese (I like Gorgonzola)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F and coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté onions until they start to turn golden brown, about four minutes. Remove from heat and stir in balsamic vinegar and pepper.

While onions are cooking, pat the dough out in a thin even layer on the baking sheet and place into the pre-heated oven. Bake until it is slightly puffed and turning golden on the edges, about six minutes.

Remove from oven. Spread the onion mixture evenly over the crust and top with the sliced pears and crumbled blue cheese. Bake until crust is crispy and golden and the cheese is melted, about eight to 10 minutes.

HONEY AND SPICE POACHED PEARS

Serve these with ice cream, whipped cream, or alongside homemade gingerbread (recipe for that coming soon!).

4 firm ripe pears

4 cups of water

liquid honey 1 ?3 cup

sugar 1 ?3 cup

4" piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

½ tsp whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick, broken in half

Peel the pears and cut them in half lengthwise; core each pear by scooping out the middle with a melon baller or spoon.

In a large shallow saucepan bring the water, honey and sugar to a boil over high heat; stir until honey and sugar dissolve, then add ginger, cloves and cinnamon. Gently place the pears in the liquid and turn heat down to simmer. Cover and cook approximately 15 minutes, or until pears can just be pierced with a fork. Remove pears from poaching liquid and set aside. Reduce the poaching liquid by simmering uncovered for 30 minutes or until syrupy and reduced by half; remove from heat, strain out spices and let cool. Transfer pears and reduced poaching liquid to a storage container, cover, and refrigerate overnight. You can eat them right away too but they taste better if they steep for a few hours.

CARAMELIZED PEAR BREAD PUDDING

A beautiful dessert for a special dinner.

2½ cups milk

4 large eggs

½ cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp freshly grated orange zest

½ tsp cinnamon

1 cups cubed, day-old country style white bread

¼ cup golden raisins, soaked for ½ hour in 1 Tbsp dark rum

1 tsp + 2 Tbsp butter

2 firm ripe pears

1 Tbsp fresh orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, heat milk until steaming, 4-6 minutes. Whisk eggs in a large bowl until blended; gradually whisk in ¼ cup of sugar, then very slowly whisk in the hot milk, then vanilla, orange zest and cinnamon. Add the bread, raisins and the rum they soaked in to the milk and gently fold together; press down lightly with the back of a large spoon. Cover and set aside at room temperature.

Butter bottom and sides of a round, two-quart baking dish with the one teaspoon butter. Peel, halve and core the pears and cut each half lengthwise into four slices. Toss with lemon juice in a medium bowl.

Heat a medium skillet over low heat and add remaining two tablespoons butter; swirl pan until butter is just melted. Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup sugar over butter, swirl pan to mix, then arrange pear slices in the pan in an even layer; increase heat to medium low and without stirring let the pears begin to brown and the sauce to slowly caramelize, adjusting heat as necessary to prevent burning, about 10 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and carefully turn each pear slice with a fork; return to heat and cook until sauce is uniformly golden, two to four minutes more. Transfer pears one at a time to prepared baking dish, arranging in a circle and slightly overlapping them if necessary. Scrape any remaining syrup in pan over pears. Set baking dish a shallow roasting pan; spoon bread and custard mixture into the dish. Press down on the bread until it is submerged. Place pan in the oven and add hot water to the outer pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the baking dish.

Bake until pudding is browned on top and just set in the middle, 60 to 75 minutes (don't overbake or it will be dry). Remove baking dish from water-filled pan and cool on a rack for at least 45 minutes.

To serve, run a knife around the edge of the pudding; place a serving plate on top of baking dish and invert pudding onto the plate. Serve with softly whipped cream with a bit of icing sugar and vanilla stirred in.