Golden saffron pears with blue cheese parfait

I cannot resist pears in the autumn, especially the firmer varieties such as Beurre Bosc that are ideal for poaching. I buy packets of the smaller fruit that are ideal to serve whole or halved in cooking and baking.

Here is how a delicious recipe was created ……

I usually poach pears in red wine, but on this occasion we had more than half a bottle of Chenin Blanc in the fridge that was ‘rejected’ for being over aged to accompany a light fish dish. It had turned pale golden and developed a complex honey flavour that called for something sweet or savoury.

We always buy a few threads of saffron on our travels and when I tidied my spice drawer a few weeks ago I realised that I need to use these golden threads before they completely lost their delicate flavour.

Read more about Saffron in a separate blog dedicated to this ingredient!

Saffron threads …. only 6-8 threads are used in this recipe!

saffron gives a beautiful golden colour!

Pears are a perfect marriage with cheese, so they are often freshly sliced on a cheese board or combined with cheese in a recipe. A point of deviation ….. one of my favourite toasted sandwiches is using slices of nutty, wholewheat bread, a spread of onion marmalade or a good fruit chutney, grated well matured cheddar and slices of fresh pear!

These days we all try to enjoy lighter meals and find so the traditional cheese course at the end of a meal (before or after a dessert) too heavy, so I tend to combine the cheese and dessert course. The trend is also to bring a savoury element into desserts!

We were going off on holiday soon and I knew that I had a wedge of beautiful blue cheese that had to be used, so I prepared a light blue cheese parfait.

When designing a dish don’t forget to include various textures and contrasting flavours. This dish definitely needed a crisp element crisp element so I included a nut praline.

The result was delicious!