Even if you don’t grow your own, you’re likely
to come across a glut f rom time to time –
f rom a f riend’s allotment, perhaps, in your
weekly veg box, or at a stall at the farmers’
market. Finding varied ways to eat and store
this seasonal bount y is satisf ying to mind,
appetite and pantry. Spend a few hours with
your glut and make a dish to eat right away,
another for the next day, and a little
something for the larder as a future treat.
M
ost pears come along a
little later than apples,
and although there are a
few summer varieties,
mostly they are a fruit
that sees us through late
autumn and into winter: a handy thing at a
time when fresh fruit is becoming scarce.
Their point of ripening varies by variety;
most are ripe by now, but there are some
that can be wrapped and stored in a shed,
then brought indoors to ripen slowly.
The tricky thing about pears is that their
progression from hard to perfectly ripe to
mush happens very quickly, and is easily
missed. They should be harvested just
unripe, and then watched like a hawk for
the moment they start to turn.
This is one of the factors that makes
cooking with pears so appealing. Unripe
pears cook beautifully, holding their shape
and softening up, retaining their own
delicious f lavour while taking on those
f lavours they are cooked with. Cooked and
uncooked pears have the pleasing ability to
straddle the sweet and savoury worlds: you
can put them into hearty autumnal salads
or pickle them and eat them with cheese,
and they will be just as happy as they are
in a cake or spooned over ice-cream. »Abundant in autumn –
let’s hear it for
salad-sweetening,
cake-moistening,
pickle-friendly pears