[poached pears with chocolate almond sauce]
Learn with Michel Roux Jr
It’s important to cook seasonally and this is a great dessert for autumn and winter. I love poached pears – they’re so versatile. This recipe has vanilla in the syrup, but you could use cinnamon, allspice and star anise, or flavour the syrup with wine or a little bit of lemon zest. There are a hundred and one different ways to poach a pear. And don’t throw away the poaching syrup – you can use it as a cordial or in a cocktail. Poached pears were something of a regular dessert at the old Le Gavroche, run by my dad and uncle, and they still feature in the restaurant today. We had them on the menu recently, poached in red wine. It’s something you don’t see enough on menus. This recipe is similar to one I’ve taught at cookery school Sauce by The Langham, where I’ve had people say, “There’s no milk or cream in your chocolate sauce?” “Trust me,” I say, and people are blown away because the chocolate’s intense flavour comes through so well. I’m a huge fan of dark chocolate and in this sauce, it’s not masked by anything else.
Roux’s rules
T he pears
What pears should I use?
You can poach any pear. My preference is for williams pears, but conference or any pear in season will do. They should be a little bit firm, not ripe and ready to eat.
How do I peel them neatly?
Peel the pears with a good peeler as opposed to using a knife. You can rub them with a clean scourer to smooth the edges if you want to – but you’d probably only do that for a restaurant, not if you’re cooking this at home.
What should I look for when cooking them?
They mustn’t boil. When you’re making your syrup, it’s brought to the boil, but your pears just gently simmer. Use a skewer or point of a knife to test that they’re soft all the way through, but not turning to mush. Never fear, though: if they go mushy, you can still eat them – it becomes a compote!
Why cool the pears in the syrup?
It carries on cooking them gently and means they get all the flavour from the syrup.
What other fruit can I poach?
You can more or less poach any fruit in this manner – do apples in exactly the same way. Or get a fresh pineapple, trim it down, make big chunky rings or quarters and poach them.
T he sauce
Why is there no cream in the sauce?
The idea is not to make it too rich. There’s just a little bit of butter, which gives a nice gloss. Some chocolate sauces have milk or cream added, but for me that’s too
