Grapevine, TX | How to Cook with Pears | Kotsanis Institute

Meghan:
Hello. I'm Meghan with Kotsanis Institute. Thank you for joining me today. Today, we're cooking with pears, and we're going to make poached pears with a cranberry puree. This can be very beautiful for the holiday season. To tell you briefly about the health benefits of pears, first of all, the skin of a pair is a great source of dietary fiber. So, when you eat these on a regular basis, go ahead and eat the skin. Also, because of its flavonol content, it is linked to a decreased risk of type two diabetes, and it's pretty easily digestible. Many parents, when they're starting their kids on solid foods, they'll start with pears because they're easy to digest.

Meghan:
Let's start on the recipe. Shall we? We've got two large and pretty firm Bosc pears. Like I said, they have a more honey-like flavor. They're going to be great for the recipe. We have about two and a half cups of fresh cranberries. You can also use frozen for this. We have a cup of orange juice. I'm using organic orange juice. We have a half a cup of port wine. We need the sweet wine for this flavor, for this recipe, rather. And also, I have a cup of maple syrup. I'm going to get started by putting all of my wet ingredients and the cranberries in a large skillet. So, join me over at the stove.

Meghan:
Okay, you're going to start bringing a skillet up to about medium heat and combining all of your wet ingredients as well as your cranberries. You're going to bring them all to a simmer, a healthy simmer. I'm stirring them pretty regularly and until the cranberries start to burst. They're just going to pop open. Cook those all at once. While the cranberries are cooking, prepare your pears. Start by peeling them, and then you'll want to take the cores out. You can use an apple corer, but I'm always terribly clumsy with them.

Meghan:
Okay. I'm going to try and show you how these look when they're bursting. You can start to see little air bubbles coming out, and you can see that they're just starting to split. So, you're going to be doing this for about five minutes. When most of your cranberries have split, I put them into this for easy pouring, but you're going to put all of this into a food processor and puree. Once you get the cranberries pureed, you're just going to put them right back into the skillet which you cooked them, and bring it back to a low simmer. And to that, you're going to add the pears.

Meghan:
Okay. Once your puree starts boiling lightly, you're going to want to add your pears. Just dip them right in there. And then, you're just going to stir it up to cover them, and let your pears cook just until they're tender. It's probably going to take something around eight minutes. You can see this puree has really thickened a lot, and the pairs have gotten to where they're nice and tender. I am just going to strain... I'm using a slotted spoon, and I'm just going to pull the pears out and store the puree and the pears separately.

Meghan:
Now, it's just a matter of plating up the puree. I'm just going to spoon a little bit into a bowl and transfer a couple pears into each serving. Now, with this recipe, it is important that you use a Bosc pear. You're more likely going to run into the Bartlett pear, but it's not as strong enough or sweet enough flavor. But Bosc really takes advantage of a honey-type flavor, and you need it to counteract the tartness of the cranberry and the orange. This is a beautiful festive dish for the holidays. I hope that you'll try it. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope to see you back here next week. Have a great day.