Dessert for a change (a simple baked pear)

 This one is going to need a little tweaking, but I'm fairly happy with the results, especially considering I was winging it without a recipe.

I like the flavor of pears, but I'm not really fond of the texture. Mostly I use them in smoothies with a lot of chopped or grated ginger (there's usually some in the house, sometimes fresh, soemtimes from a jar), vanilla protein powder, almond milk, maybe some nutmeg, the last idea for which I thank my unofficially adopted little sister Fae.

I've tried a few different kinds and I usually come back to Bosc. I've had them grilled, poached in wine, these have gone over vanilla ice cream or gelato.

This week I figured, why not bake one? It's no secret I loathe the taste and texture of the traditional flour/sugar/salt/water/fat, but really, there's no rule all baked fruit needs to be in pie or tart or turnover. 

If I wanted crunch, I have raspberry granola, and that could be an option for the other pear in the fridge. I like the spices, though, so after some thought, I came up with this.

• One Bosc pear lazily peeled so there's a little left for texture,
• 3/4 Tablespoon of butter
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (I had light in the pantry. Dark would work just fine)
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground ginger
• 2 Tablespoons cream for serving

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F (244 C, 477 Kelvin) first thing. 

The pear was chopped into bits no bigger than a cubic inch. No, I didn't measure, this was purely eyeballed. I tried to keep them similar.

Next, I  used some of the butter to grease a small class baking dish, then put the rest in a ramekin in the microwave at level 5 for 30 seconds to melt it. Pears into the dish, stir with the butter.

From there, I sprinkled on the sugar and stirred again, then shook the nutmeg and ginger jars over the pears a few times. Again with the stirring.

This next bit is where I need to tweak some. I put the pears in the oven, uncovered, and stirred them every ten minutes or so. I think I need to do this at list every fifteen. I didn't really get some nice browning until about 45 minutes in and I ended up turning up the heat a touch towards the end. I will post an update when I do this again.

It also needs a bit more spice, maybe a touch of vanilla. 

They came out of the oven looking like this:

and it is definitely clear that I need some smaller bowls because the serving, which was perfect for one, looked a little lonely in the smallest of the bowls I have.

I finished it with 2 T of cream because I love fruit and cream and I didn't want the sweetness of ice cream to overwhelm the spices. It made for an excellent mouthfeel. 

Quite easy, overall. It could easily be made vegan with a butter substitute (I'm not up on my butter substitu5es), and finishing it with a coffee creamer. Trader Joe's has a vanilla one made with almond and coconut milk that could work, but I'd use only 1 T because it will have extra sugar. Not sure if almond milk by itself would work, but it's definitely worth investigating.

If you try this, please let me know! 

Duck Breasts Were on Sale

I love duck and the time I cooked them previously was an unmitigated disaster. They came out like mush. Like an idiot, I did not write down what the mistake was, but mush in a sous vide incident tends to mean it was cooked too long. 

This time, I did more research. I didn't follow everything in this Serious Eats guide, but it was enough to give me a very juicy  meaty duck breast. 

For a sauce, I took a mental inventory of what I had in the pantry/fridge. Duck often goes well with fruit, especially orange, but I don't keep marmalade around as a rule. One of my favorite sweet condiments, on the other hand, is black currant jam. I also usually have red wine on the rack and thought this would work pretty well . I did a quick search and found several recipes, so obviously I wasn't the only one with this idea.

This was one of those cases where I looked at a bunch of recipes and winged it from there. Let me tell you about the duck first.

The duck was simply seasoned with salt  & pepper and cooked at 132F  for about 55 minutes. I timed myself using an episode of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me. Like noted the article, at least 45 minutes. I was a bit paranoid about overcooking after my last venture (don't ask)  Afterwards, I put it in a cold pan, and then put the pan on high to crisp the fatty side. Serious Eats said 5 minutes, it really took 10 to get the fat golden brown and I'm not sure I don't want more next time. I need to experiment with this a bit. I also need to let the duck rest a bit longer. Duck jus went all over my kitchen when I was slicing.

For the sauce, I went with this combination:

• 2 T minced shallot
• 1 T butter, divided in half
• 1 Cup red wine
• 1 Cup mushroom broth (some of the recipes I saw said chicken, some said beef. The chicken broth I had in the fridge had expired, and I didn't have beef, but I always have mushroom bouillon in the house)
• 2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 3 heaping Tablespoons of black currant jam

Melt the 1/2 the butter in a small pan on medium heat, then add the shallot, cooking until translucent, about 4 minutes. Slowly pour in the wine, and let reduce for about 15 minutes, then add the broth. Continue to reduce, until the volume is down by about half. Stir in the jam, and cook on low for another ten minutes. Keep warm until the duck is ready. Stir in the rest of the butter right before serving.

I served the duck with baby potatoes, that I cut in half. When I had cooked the duck's fatty side for a few minutes , I threw the potatoes in the same pan and kept them there for another 5 minutes while the fat cooked and then another five when the duck rested. 

I also cooked some snow peas--real easy. Boil water, thrown in peas for about 5 minutes until they are bright green  and they will be tender and crispy.

The final result: