Poached Pears with Osmanthus Granita
I’ve been trained since birth for the Asian summer, but to be honest, the European heatwaves are probably my kryptonite. A dry heat, relentless sun and lack of air conditioning? I’m definitely melting.
I’d generally also much rather be cold than hot any day (it just means it’s time for endless KBBQ!), but at the same time - a hot summer means it’s totally fine to have 5 shaved ices or ice creams a day. This recipe is based on a classic Cantonese dessert soup that contains plenty of ingredients believed in traditional Chinese medicine to “cool” the body, with an icy twist for a hot and humid climate. If serving this in the summer, the osmanthus granita does tend to melt very quickly - so serve this as soon as you’ve plated it!
Ingredients:
4 medium sized Asian pears, halved and cored
Half mug of honey (or roughly half a squeeze bottle (i.e. 227g of honey))
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of dried osmanthus flowers
12 tablespoons of sugar (to taste)
More honey (to taste)*
Handful of rehydrated goji berries
Combine the half mug of honey, 2 cups of water and vanilla extract in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Add in your pears and boil for at least 10 minutes, or until fork tender. Remove from the saucepan, and set aside to cool.
In the meantime, prepare the osmanthus granita. Soak osmanthus flowers in 2 cups of lukewarm water, and add in sugar to taste until the mixture tastes visibly sweet. Pour into a glass dish (or silicon container) and freeze for at least 2 hours.
Once the osmanthus mixture has frozen, use a fork to gently scratch fluffy crystals off of the osmanthus ice.
To serve - place one pear cored-side up, and generously top with granita. Garnish with goji berries, and finish off with a drizzle of honey. Serve immediately.
*When it’s available, I like to use yuzu honey to drizzle onto the poached pears - but to maximise the osmanthus flavour, I’ve also used osmanthus honey. This is done by by infusing a few tablespoons of dried osmanthus flowers into clear honey for at least a few days, or a week for the best results. Osmanthus flowers are incredibly delicate, so the flavours will be quite lightly floral.