Pear Sauce

We have a pear tree in our yard and each year we watch the pears growing and ripening for most of the summer. Even though this is a long, drawn-out process, somehow we are always a bit surprised to find that the pears are already falling to the ground (many times, over-ripe). Usually we do some combination of apple-pear sauce, pear tarts, and eating the pears raw. This weekend, we tidied up the yard and ended up with a rather large bucket of fallen pears, many with blemishes, bug holes, and bruises. We decided to make pear sauce. Usually, we buy some apples at the vegetable stand or farmers market to supplement the pears, since there usually are not that many. This year, however, we’ve got such a bumper crop, there was no need for apples. There are still a ton of pears out on the tree, and more falling each day. Somehow, we’re just not quick enough to get to pick them before they fall!

The pear sauce turned out so well, I wanted to share the recipe here. The best thing about it was that it contained no added sweetener at all–just pears, a little water, and the juice of a lemon. Note: if you do not have an inexpensive or free source of pears, you may want to use whatever fruit (e.g., apples) is readily available. In Seattle, there’s an awesome group called City Fruit where, if you have a fruit tree whose fruit you do not/cannot use, you can post on the site and offer the harvest to other people in the city. It’s a great way to share/trade/find free produce. For those in other cities, do you have a similar program?

The Recipe:

a lot of pears

1 lemon

1/2 cup- 1 cup water

Wash and cut up all of the pears (in 1-2 inch chunks), cutting out any parts you wouldn’t want to eat. If you have a food mill, you don’t have to worry about removing the skin or bits of core. If you do not use a food mill, you may consider peeling the fruit, and you would definitely want to make sure you remove any seeds or core.  Put the fruit in a pot. For an idea of how many pears we used, we filled an 8-quart pot.

Add a splash of water (~1/2 – 1 cup) and the juice of 1 lemon. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally.

The pears will reduce drastically. Cook until the pears are very soft. If you’re going to use a food mill, now is the time. Food mills are great because they are inexpensive, easy to use, and they strain out any unwanted bits from what you’re making. Process pears through the food mill, until you’ve got a smooth sauce (we left a few chunks of pear in the sauce because we like it that way).

If you don’t use a food mill, leave the pears in the pot and mash them with some kind of mashing device/ hand tool.

If the sauce, at this point, is at your desired consistency, you can now eat it. If it’s thinner than you’d like, simply cook it down some more. If it’s thicker, add a little water.

This is so sweet and delicious. We put this batch in jars in the fridge, but normally we can it in jars so we have it all winter long. Enjoy!

On another note, I spent the day yesterday cooking dried kidney beans and yam treats, and then, in the afternoon, set about making Okra Gumbo (from Post Punk Kitchen’s blog) with some okra that was calling to me at the co-op this weekend.

I had never had gumbo before, and certainly never made it, so I really had no idea what to expect. But this was SO GOOD. Seriously. I made two changes to Isa’s recipe: (1) I added twice the number of kidney beans and cut out the garbanzo beans, and (2) I added some of the roasted green chilies we had in the fridge for some spice (I think this really helped)! I would highly recommend this recipe–hearty, filling, and it tastes so good! I served it with brown rice and twist of lemon.