In time for supper

Just a quick post, hopefully to inspire someone else. I found some huge Comice pears recently at the Farmers' Market that were too green to eat out of hand. I was impatiently hungry for pears.

By dinnertime, they became this:


Here's the alchemy:
3 large comice or other firm pears, cut in half, placed in a greased baking pan; squeeze the juice of a lime (or lemon) over them.
In a bowl, mix 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sauterne or sherry wine with 1/4 cup hot melted butter; drizzle over the pears. Dot with butter, grate fresh nutmeg on top. Bake at 300 degrees for about 2 hours, turning the pears once or twice so all sides get nice and carmelized. Serve with plain yoghurt or dollop of sour cream.

Cooking with love

Tonight was the second class in our series with Sangita and Arijit, "Foreign Influences on Indian Cuisine." As usual Arijit gave us a variety of background information from historic, cultural and geographic perspectives, including a bit of music from a cross-cultural group called "Bhoomi," who epitomize in music some of the enriching effects foreign influences have had on India in the last 5,000 years. The class got to meet Arijit's charming father, who was filming during class. Sangita brought in appetizers, the Gobi Manchurian (Cauliflower Fritters in Spicy Gravy) and Chai, to whet our appetites for the rest of class. She spends the day preparing and organizing the food and handouts for each class, everything chopped and labeled exquisitely, so that the actual cooking sequences proceed smoothly and quickly. We also learned to prepare a Chinese-influenced dish of Mein noodles with mixed vegetables and eggs. This will be a great recipe for using a variety of seasonal fresh vegetables in a delicious main course.