WILD WINTER BBQ: STEWED PEARS

 

The perfect ending to our Wild Winter BBQ, created by award-winning Netherlands chef Freek van Noortwijk. This clever combination of sweet pears, salted caramel and earthy Douglas Fir cream provides a wild harmony of flavour on a plate.

 

Pairing suggestion

Freek recommends pairing 15 Year Old with this dish. The whisky’s rich and spicy aromas of crème brûlée, heather honey and cinnamon, and its intense fruity notes, are the perfect partner for the pear and caramel that are central to this dessert.

 

Ingredients (to serve 4)

Pears

4 small, stewed pears

1 litre pear juice

2 cinnamon sticks

1 vanilla pod

3 star anise

1 lemon

100g sugar

 

Salted caramel

200g sugar

200ml whipping cream

100g butter (cubed)

2 fermented black walnuts

Salt

 

Douglas Fir cream

500ml whipped cream

40g sugar

3 branches Douglas Fir needles

1 sprig of rosemary

3 sheets of gelatin

 

Method

1. Peel the stewed pears, cut them into quarters and remove the seeds. Put them in a pan with the pear juice, cinnamon sticks, vanilla pod, star anise and sugar, adding just half of the juice and zest of the lemon. Cook over a medium heat for 30-40 minutes and allow to cool in their own moisture.

2. Now make the salted caramel by slowly heating the 200g of sugar in a wide saucepan. Make sure the bottom of the pan is covered with a layer of water a few millimetres deep so that you first have sugar syrup that slowly turns into a dark blond caramel. Heat the 300ml of whipping cream over a low heat to just below boiling point once your caramel is ready. Carefully and slowly add this warm cream to the caramelised sugars and stir with a whisk over a low heat until the caramel is soft again. Now add the butter, cube by cube, and one or two fermented black walnuts (to taste), and puree with a hand blender until smooth. Season with a little salt to break up the sweetness, bearing in mind that the other ingredients are sweet too.

3. To make the Douglas Fir cream, put all the ingredients except the gelatin in a pan and bring to the boil, then turn off the heat. Soak the gelatin in cold water for a few minutes and add it to your cream mixture, once it has been off the heat for ten minutes. Stir well and pour through a sieve into a flat dish. Place in the fridge to firm up.

4. To serve, take four deep, cold, dessert plates and spoon one or two generous spoonfuls of the Douglas Fir cream into each. Add three or four wedges of stewed pear per plate, on top of the cream, and finish with two good spoonfuls of warm salted caramel.