Poached Pears in White Wine and Vanilla

Pears are in season now and are the most beautiful dessert. They are easy and light and with the addition of the sweet syrup just enough to satisfy.
I am not a fan of heavy desserts, particularly in winter after a usually hearty main.
They can be poached the day before, or the morning of, if entertaining.
Serve them with whipped cream, ice cream, mascarpone sweetened with a little icing sugar, cream and lemon curd for a change and an almond tule or crostini. In fact any crunchy little biscuit would be yum. Chocolate sauce is also a beautiful addition if you want something richer.
Great cleansing dessert after a spicy Thai or Indian, not traditional of course, but perfect just the same.
You must use a vanilla bean, no vanilla essence, it is never the same.


6  firm unripe pears ( I like brown bosc ) choose pretty shaped fruit that stands up if you can, with stalk intact
2 cups water
2 cups white wine
1 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean with the seeds scraped out
zest of a lemon

Peel pears with a vegetable peeler leaving the stalk .
Simmer all of the above ingredients until the sugar has dissolved and stand the pears upright in the liquid. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. About  1 1/2 to 2 hours for the cooking time is good, but it will vary depending on the variety and ripeness of the pears.  It will take at least 30 minutes and if you have pears that are ripe and feel they are cooked or starting to fall apart remove from the syrup and let the syrup reduce down a little more.
Top up with more water if necessary.
The syrup can be used to poach any fruit and can be kept in the refrigerator in a clean glass jar for months.

Date Tart

Back to the versatile date again!  Rockpool restaurant served a dessert similar to this years ago. The custard is sublime and rich , but light enough to enjoy after a heavy winter meal. If you love cream brulee or custard type desserts, this is the one for you! When I am entertaining, I never serve a very big pudding at the end of a meal, as I really dislike leaving a meal and feeling like I am about to burst. There is an art to combining courses that compliment each other, in taste and size.
If you are a dessert lover, just keep it beautifully simple. This one looks very posh but is very easy!
Serve on its own or with some berries, or cream.

Careme vanilla bean sweet shortcrust pastry, or a any good sweet shortcrust 
12-14 Californian fresh dates halved with stones removed ( this may vary slightly due to date size )
7 egg yolks
80 grams caster sugar
700 mls cream
1 vanilla bean
22cm flan tin with removable base 

This step can be done in the morning if serving for dinner.
Careme pastry comes in a roll, so its quite easy to get the size to fit the flan tin.
Grease the tin well, especially up the fluted edges. Line the tin with pastry and press gently into sides of tin  letting it come a little higher up than the edge. This allows for shrinkage. You can cut and paste to fill in bits, this pastry is quite forgiving. Let rest for 30 minutes. Then you can trim back the edges. Blind bake on 180C for 20 minutes. Check the pastry after 10 minutes to see the shrinkage on the sides and if there is a problem pull out and adjust with any left over bits of pastry. You must have decent sides on the shell to take the custard.
If you haven't blind baked before, layer the pastry with a piece of baking paper and cover flat surface with uncooked rice to weight it down. This cooks the shell enough, to stop any seepage from the liquid during cooking.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Place the dates on the pastry in circles.
Cream together, the egg yolks and sugar until light and pale. Spilt the vanilla bean and scrape the contents into the mixture and mix in the cream. Pour the filling onto the date lined tart shell.
If the shell is already in place in the oven, you can fill as high as possible without having to move it.
Bake for 30 minutes until custard is just set. I serve it with frozen mixed berries, warmed in microwave.