By Martha Stewart
Source: Martha Stewart
Photo Source: Unsplash,
From our Family's Table to Yours
While we craft our own recipes, we do enjoy a recipe from others cooks to chefs: Martha Stewart being one of them. During the Holidays we made a few dishes, some our own and some from others. The Clean Cooking Series: The Holidays in Review is an opportunity for you to Journey with us Cooking & Eating Clean (One of Our Health Features) designed to empower you to lead a healthy life in many forms and fashions, in this instance via clean cooking and eating. Clean cooking or eating is a recently coined term simply aimed at distinguishing between those foods grown or raised with (organic or natural) or without chemicals such as pesticides. Ideally these farms are not agricultural complexes where plants and animals grow having never seen or been exposed to the actual SUN.
Naturally, clean cooking and eating begins with sourcing foods that haven been grown under organic and nutritious conditions, which Eliot Coleman points out in his book: The New Organic Grower.
We will be reviewing the clean dishes we prepared this past Holiday season. All dishes are simple, many traditional classics and easy to make at home.
Karibu Chakula / Bon Appetit - Swahili / French
Poached Pears Choose perfectly ripe pears for this poached pear recipe; if they're overripe, they will be too soggy, and if they're underripe, they won't poach well. Bosc pears, which hold their shape well when baked or poached, have a sweet, tart flavor, but you can also use Anjou or Bartlett pears. Ingredients
4 firm, medium-size pears, such as Anjou, Bartlett, or Bosc
1 bottle robust red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, or Merlot
1/2 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise
1 whole cinnamon stick
1 orange peel
1 lemon peel
2 whole cloves
1 star anise
1 whole bay leaf
Directions
Step 1
Peel the pears, and place in medium saucepan. Add wine, sugar, vanilla bean, cinnamon stick, orange peel, lemon peel, cloves, star anise, bay leaf, and just enough water to cover pears.
Step 2
Set saucepan over high heat, and bring liquid to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook, occasionally stirring gently, over medium-low heat, until a paring knife easily pierces pears, about 15 minutes. Remove pan from heat; let pears cool in liquid.
Step 3
Using a slotted spoon, transfer pears to a plate. Pour poaching liquid through a sieve set over a bowl. Discard solids, and return liquid to saucepan. Place over medium-high heat, and cook until liquid has been reduced to a syrup that coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 45 minutes. Let cool; store pears in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Step 4
When ready to serve, arrange pears on a platter or on individual plates, and drizzle poaching liquid over them.
Cook's Notes Peel the pears carefully, leaving the stems intact. Cut a small amount off the bottom so the pear can stand upright. If you're peeling many pears at once, immerse them in a large bowl of cold water with lemon juice. The acidulated water will keep the pears from discoloring until they are ready to be poached.
How can you introduce Pears from your garden into your diet? Why? How could that improve your health? How could that improve the environment?
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