Caramel Forelle Pear - A Hawaiian take on Pacific Northwest deliciousness

Here's the recipe description:
Oregon Forelle pear poached in Maui pineapple wine, dipped in a rich caramel glaze, served with Frankie's Nursery 'Meli Kalima' (Honey Cream) pineapple kanten, almond pear French macaron, and house made Maui Gold pineapple granité. Mouth watering???

About the Forelle Pear...these beauties pictured left are from Oregon. They are distinguishable by their small size and red freckles which they develop as they ripen. These miniature pears are sweet, juicy, and have a spicy quality to them, especially when eaten with the skin on (which is where all the nutrients are anyway...don't know why you wouldn't!)

Those nutrients include vitamin C and insoluble fiber which will help keep you regular and is good for the colon.

I particularly love this pear because it is so cute!

We are in Hawaii these days so let's add a local component to this plate...Meli Kalima Pineapple

Sticking with the theme of miniature fruits I chose to utilize this unique pineapple. Frank Sekiya (of Frankie's Nursery up the way in Waimanalo http://www.frankiesnursery.com/) developed this
pineapple with a consistently high sugar content and creamy white color which is where it gets its name; 'Meli' describing the honey sweet sugar content, and 'Kalima' describing its creamy color and dense texture.

This pineapple is smaller than most but yeilds such a creamy, sweet fruit, I had to use it.

The Caramel Forelle Pear dessert is a quartet of items meant to showcase the pears and the pineapples. The components of each item are cross utilized to tie the quartet together and create a cohesive dish. Each component can be prepared and served on its own, or together offer a diverse utilization of two delicious fruits. The inspiration for this dessert came from many
places, beginning with the pear, trying to find a local wine to poach it in (resulting in the discovery of Maui's pineapple wines, thus pineapple was introduced), a visit to Frankie's Nursery tasting many tropical fruits including their invention, the Meli Kalima pineapple, a coworkers' trip to Japan and the kanten noodles he came back with, classic techniques and flavors
combined with new to me techniques and flavor pairings.

The recipes:

Pear Poaching Liquid

Start with a Maui pineapple wine, you'll find it undrinkable so
put it all in the pot and open a bottle of something good for the cook.
· 500 mL simple syrup (3 lb sugar, 32 fl oz water, 8 oz glucose or light corn syrup; combine ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, remove from heat, cool and reserve in the refrigerator to use as needed or use right away) Baking and pastry : mastering the art and craft / the Culinary Institute of America. -- 2nd ed. p. 488.
· 750 mL pineapple wine
· 1/2 lemon, juice only

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepot. Wash 6 pears and remove the core through the
bottom with a small melon baller, removing the seeds too, leave the stem on. Add the pears to the poaching liquid and bring to a simmer over low heat stirring occasionally to keep the pears turning over and cooking evenly. Simmer until pears are knife tender. It is very important that the pears are thouroughly cooked or they will oxidize from the inside out and your pears will
turn brown and look bruised. Remove pears from the liquid, let drain on a rack placed over a sheet pan in the refigerator.

Caramel Glaze (Baking and pastry : mastering the art and craft / the Culinary
Institute of America. -- 2nd ed. p. 426)

· 14 g Gelatin Sheets
· 425 g granulated sugar
· 30 mL lemon juice
· 300 mL water, divided
· 375 mL heavy cream
· 1 vanilla bean, scraped
· 1 pinch salt
· 28 g cornstarch

1. Bloom the gelatin in ice water.
2. Combine sugar and lemon juice and cook to medium amber color.
3. Slowly add 225 mL of the water, cream, vanilla bean, and salt.
4. Combine the cornstarch with the remaining water to make a slurry.
5. Whisk in the slurry and bring to a boil, remove from the heat.
6. Squeeze the water out of the gelatin and add the gelatin to the hot caramel mixture.
7. Strain. It is ready to use now or may be refrigerated and rewarmed for later use. Allow the glaze to cool slightly so that it will coat the pears. Dip each chilled pear into the caramel glaze and place on rack to allow excess to drip off. Move glazed pears to clean parchment lined
sheet pan and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 12 hours.

The next component on the plate is the kanten noodle....these noodles are flavored with the Meli Kalima pineapple.

Kanten Noodles

· 1 cup Meli Kalima pineapple puree
· 1 cup used pear poaching liquid (after the liquid has been used to poach a batch of pears
it has picked up just a hint of the spicy quality of the pears and helps to relate the noodles to the pear)
· 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
· 1 heaping teaspoon kanten powder (a.k.a. agar agar)

1. Prepare a 1/4 sheet pan (9" x 12") by lining with plastic wrap.
2. Combine the pineapple puree and poaching liquid in a small saucepot and bring to a
simmer.
3. Stir together the sugar and kanten powder, add to the simmering liquids and simmer,
stirring constantly with a whisk for three minutes.
4. Pour the kanten into the prepared sheet pan and let sit until solid, keep
refrigerated until ready to use.
5. Cut the kanten into long strips, or square "noodles"
6. Serve noodles with chopped tarragon in a syrup made by reducing some of the poaching
liquid until sweet and the desired consistency.

Almond Pear Macaron

· 440 g tant pour tant (French for equal parts almond flour and powdered sugar)
· 40 g powdered sugar
· 210 g room temperature egg whites, divided
· 120 g granulated sugar

1. Combine tant pour tant and powdered sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Process to
further grind the almond flour and to thoroughly mix with the powdered sugar. Sift ingredients onto a sheet of parchment.
2. Whip 190 g of the whites to medium peaks, add granulated sugar and continue mixing
to stiff peaks. Add the remaining 20 g of whites at the end of mixing, combine by hand.
3. Fold in the processed and sifted dry ingredients in thirds being careful not to deflate
the meringue.
4. Pipe cookies on parchment lined sheet pans. Bake at 250F for 12 minutes, rotating
pan half way through baking.
5. Pipe pear jelly filling between two cookies to make a sandwich.

Pear Jelly
· 4 Cups Bartlett pear puree
· 5 Cups granulated sugar
· 2 Tbsp lemon juice
· 1.75 oz pectin

1. Combine puree, lemon juice, and pectin, bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.
2. Add sugar and return to a full rolling boil for exactly one minute.
3. Remove from heat, cool.
4. Process jelly in food processor to create a light, airy, smooth consistency, transfer
to a piping bag to fill cookies.

Maui Gold Pineapple Granité

· Puree fresh Maui Gold pineapples and strain through a fine mesh strainer, add simple syrup (recipe included above in poaching liquid) and used poaching liquid (again to tie the flavors of the plate together), to taste.
· Store the base in a shallow container in the freezer. Stir mixture with a whisk every 30 minutes until it begins to form ice crystals. Continue stirring occasionally to keep the ice crystals small and uniform, the more you stir the better the texture of your final product will be.

So there it is, a complex dessert with many components that you might not ever attempt to make on your own but I hope you enjoyed learning how it is done in the professional kitchen. Here is a picture of the finished product...

This dessert can be found for a limited time (the 2011/2012 winter season) at
Chef Mavro restaurant in Honolulu....where I am the Pastry Chef:)