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Honeyed pears September 6, 2007 When you shift house four times in almost as many years, things have a way of disappearing. In my case, it’s generally cookbooks. When you know a favourite cookbook could be in any one of 20 cartons, it’s easy enough to abandon the search. Recently I was reunited with a favourite book I hadn’t seen for two years. It started life as a nicely bound and embossed volume with “Recipe Book” stamped on the cover in gold lettering. It was a pristine exercise book, waiting for me to start filling the pages – a 21st birthday present from my sister Lynne. I left room for an alphabetical index and the front and then started carefully filling the pages with the little Parker pen my grandmother had given me and which is still sitting on my desk.. I can see now that a fountain pen wasn’t the best writing instrument of choice. I am a fairly physical cook at times and have a high splatter rate, so the ink has run on some of the more popular recipes. Over the ensuing 10 years, though, I persevered with the pen and my tidiest printing and filled the book with 139 recipes I’d cajoled out of friends and relatives, with the occasional one transcribed from a newspaper or magazine. Scattered through the pages there are further recipes torn off a flour bag or saved from a kipper tin, scribbled on an envelope by my mother, typed by a friend or clipped off a box of herbs – ones that were never written in. This was a book I took on holiday so I could whip up a bit of baking or turn to for inspiration. It was great to be reunited with it a few weeks back and make some old favourites from the past. Today’s recipe is one of those, a simple dessert given to me by Sonya, whose son I used to babysit at the time. It can be made from canned pear halves, but I much prefer using fresh ones.
Honeyed Pears 6 pears Peel the pears, cut in half lengthwise and remove the core using a teaspoon or melon baller. Place flat side up in an ovenproof dish and in each core hole place a teaspoon of honey, a small knob of butter and sprinkle with a little ground ginger. Heat the water, lemon juice, grated ginger and the second measure of honey and stir until well combined then pour into the dish of pears. Avoid pouring the liquid over the pears at this stage. Bake at 170C, basting occasionally after 10 minutes, till cooked but firm. Remove from oven and turn the temperature down to 100C. Whisk the egg whites until they form peaks. Whisk in the cornflour and castor sugar. Spoon or pipe the meringue mixture into the middle of each pear half. Return to the centre of the oven to set. Serve hot with some of the syrup and with lightly whipped cream.
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