Don’t get me wrong: I love spring and its brilliant burgeoning of young green shoots, leaves and other delights. They brighten the menu and gladden the soul. However, when it comes to puddings, the dearth of beautiful fresh fruit is clearly obvious. There is still quite a wait for the great summer harvests.
There is one late-harvested fruit crop, though, which still delights at this time of year, and that is the pear. The majority of the magnificent eating varieties have pretty much expired come springtime, leaving behind, at the tail end of their season, some pears that poach beautifully. There is a very fine tradition of pears poached or steeped in wines and syrups.
Under-ripe fruit ensures an estimable result. When poached, a pear makes for elegant eating, served in a modest pool of the resulting syrup. They also have the brilliant quality of masquerading in as many guises as the Scarlet Pimpernel, elevating tarts, cakes, trifles and more besides: in this instance, a pear and hazelnut galette – a blessed union.
It is only fair to give the hazelnut an honourable mention, as it seems somewhat neglected. Cobnuts, too, a fine Kentish tradition, sometimes known as filiberts (a close relative of the more familiar hazelnut), are also an ever-decreasing harvest, their cost high, as they are picked and processed almost entirely by hand. They are a lovely thing, and should you be fortunate enough to have frozen some, they are most becoming in this recipe.
The best hazelnuts I know are from Piedmont in northern Italy where, when harvested in the autumn, they are sold shelled, roasted, skinned and vacuum-packed in 1kg bags – and at a curiously reasonable price. When making a rare appearance in Blighty, these marvels usually come with a price tag not for the faint-hearted.
But, when all is said and done, there are very good, more affordable hazelnuts to be had. The prevailing rule is to buy them whole rather than ground. The skin is easily removed: roast lightly in a moderate oven, tip into a waiting towel and rub vigorously, as if they had just been plucked from the North Sea.
This recipe makes for a handsome pudding to set before a jolly crew, to be cut into at the table. It requires no more than a bowl of the loveliest, thickest jersey cream as an accompaniment.
Pear and hazelnut galette (main picture)
A happy thought is making the remaining syrup into an aperitif with the addition of lemon and orange juice, topped up with champagne.
Serves 10
8 pears, conference or william being friendly and reliable varieties
Juice of 3 lemons
500g puff pastry (by all means, make your own but that is altogether another story)
2 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp redcurrant, medlar or crab apple jelly, to serve
For the syrup
1 litre water
350g sugar
350ml white wine
1 vanilla pod, split, the seeds scraped and reserved
2 bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
Peel of 1 lemon in strips, as for a martini
For the frangipane
200g hazelnuts, roasted and peeled plus another 25g to be reserved for later
200g unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
Vanilla seeds, reserved from the pod (see above)
1 First, prepare the poaching syrup. Put all the syrup ingredients into a heavy-bottomed pan. Put this on a high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, simmering for just 1 minute, then keep warm until needed.
2 Peel the pears. Add the juice of 2 lemons to a bowl. Roll each peeled pear in the lemon juice to prevent any unseemly discolouring. Once all are done, put each pear and any lemon juice still in the bowl into the syrup. Return the pot to the boil, then lower the heat until the pan is simmering. Cut a generous disc of silicone paper to lay upon the pears ensuring that none bob upon the surface, cooking unevenly. A plate over the paper might help, keeping a beady eye that it does not slip beneath the surface. Pears cook very differently depending on their ripeness and girth. They will certainly take at least 40 minutes on a gentle simmer, requiring a check every few minutes thereafter. The first clue to their readiness is the pears acquiring a beautiful translucence. The final check is made by inserting a sharp knife – should the flesh yield, the pears are cooked. Once cooked, let the pears cool, remaining covered in the syrup. Once cooled, remove the plate, but keep the silicone paper atop. It is worth noting they keep very well for several days and do benefit rather well from a lengthy steeping.
3 Meanwhile, make the frangipane. First, grind (or chop) the 200g of hazelnuts quite coarsely, then put them to one side in a bowl.
4 Beat the softened butter with the sugar, preferably using a kitchen mixer, until thoroughly combined and beginning to turn pale. Crack the eggs into a cup and beat well with a fork. Reduce the speed of the mixer, then add the egg to the bowl in a slow and careful stream. Once thoroughly combined, add the chopped hazelnuts and vanilla seeds reserved from making the syrup. Stir this well, then transfer the mixture into another bowl, cover and refrigerate.
5 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Remove the pears from the syrup. Cut each pear in half, then remove the core and cut in half again. Repeat until you have a beautiful heap of quartered pears.
6 Have ready a baking sheet – the largest your oven can accommodate. Lightly dust a cool work surface with flour. Begin rolling out the pastry, bearing in mind the shape and size of your baking sheet. During the final few rolls, strew the pastry with the caster sugar and finish rolling out, crushing the sugar into the pastry.
7 Transfer the pastry to the baking sheet – the easiest way being to roll the pastry on to the rolling pin and then unravel it on to the baking sheet.
8 Scoop out spoonfuls of the frangipane and dot evenly over the pastry, keeping a good 2cm border at the edges – vital for rising and keeping the frangipane from making a bid for freedom over the edges. Lay the quarters of pear over the frangipane in a random manner.
9 Slide the prepared galette on its baking sheet into the oven. Turn the heat down to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and cook for 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden. Reduce the heat further to 150C/300F/gas mark 2 and cook for a further 30-35 minutes, or until bronzed. The better the bake, the better the galette.
10 When the galette has cooled somewhat, warm the fruit jelly with the juice of the remaining lemon. When melted and smooth, brush this over the galette and strew with the remaining chopped hazelnuts. Serve warm with the best, thickest jersey cream.
- Jeremy Lee is chef-proprietor of Quo Vadis restaurant in London; @jeremyleeqv
