[LMB] OT: AKICOTL - green pear recipes?

[Katherine Collett]

On Sep 6, 2007, at 10:50 PM, Pat Mathews wrote:
> I had to thin my pears before the tree branches broke. Does anyone  
> have a
> recipe for late-ripening and probably unripe pears?

Here are three favorite recipes.  Since they all cook the pears,  
underripe should be fine.  Some years we get lots of pears, and need  
lots of recipes for pears, and some years we get hardly any--and a  
few weeks ago the last surviving bit of one of our two pear trees  
blew over in a microburst, alas.

Pear Upside-Down Cake


Heat oven to 350¡.
Heat 1/4 cup margarine in a round or square cake pan, 9x1.5 inches,  
in oven until melted.  Sprinkle 1/2 cup brown sugar over margarine.   
Spoon into pan 1 quart pears (bottled, canned, or fresh, cut up; or 1  
pint pears, plus frozen or fresh cherries or raspberries, or other  
canned or fresh fruit.  Save the juice for something else) .
Prepare cake batter:
Beat together:
             1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)
             1 cup sugar
             1 1/2 tsp baking powder
             1/2 tsp salt
             3/4 cup milk
             1/3 cup vegetable oil or shortening
             1 egg
             1 tsp vanilla
Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.  Pour over fruit in pan.
Bake until knife inserted in center comes out clean, about 45  
minutes.  We like it served with whipped cream.


Pear Butter

Prepare pulp: quarter and core pears.  Cook until soft, adding only  
enough water to prevent sticking. Press through a sieve or food mill  
(I think we often skip that, or put the pulp through the food  
processor instead).  Measure pulp.

2 quarts pear pulp (about 20 medium, fully ripe pears [or whatever  
you have])
4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

Add remaining ingredients to the pulp; cook until thick, about 35  
minutes.  As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.   
Pour hot, into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space.  Adjust caps.   
Process pints 10 minutes in boiling water bath.  Yield: about 4 pints.

from Ball Blue Book: the Guide to Home Canning and Freezing

Chocolate Chip Pear Bread

13/4 C. whole wheat pastry flour
11/2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. ground cardamom, optional
1 egg or 2 egg whites, beaten
1/2 C. packed brown sugar
3/4 C. buttermilk
1/4 C. safflower oil
1 t. vanilla extract
1 C. pears, cored and cut into 1/4 inch dice
1 C. semisweet chocolate mini-chips (or Ghirardelli 60% Cacao  
Chocolate Chips)

Preheat the oven to 350û.  In a mixing bowl, combine the first 5  
ingredients plus the optional cardamom.  In another bowl, combine the  
next five ingredients and beat together.  Make a well in the center  
of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture.  Beat together  
until smoothly combined.  Stir in the diced pear and chocolate  
chips.  Pour the batter into an oiled 9x5x3 loaf pan.  Bake for 45 to  
50 minutes, or until the top is golden and a knife inserted in the  
center tests clean.
                         from Vegetarian Celebrations by Nava Atlas

The cardamom and pears go particularly well together.

Enjoy!

Katherine