(Recipe based on Gaston Lenôtre, the old master of French pâtisserie)
For 8 people: 500 g firm, ripe pears Syrup: 1/2 l water, 200 g sugar, 200 g honey, 1 vanilla pod; 400 g short pastry made from: 200 g flour, 10 g sugar, 1 pinch of salt, 175 g butter, 1 egg yolk, 2 tbsp milk.; Topping: 1/2 l milk, 150 g sugar, 2 eggs, 40 g flour, 2 cl pear brandy; 200 g apricot jam, 2 cl brandy
Peel pears, wash thin-skinned ones only. For the syrup, mix the ingredients, bring to the boil, reduce slightly, add the pears whole and simmer gently for about 15 minutes so that the fruit remains firm. Cool in the syrup and then drain on kitchen paper.
Butter a springform pan and dust with flour. Roll out the shortcrust pastry thinly and line the tin with it. Place in the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 200°.
For the topping, mix the milk with 50 g sugar and bring to the boil. Beat the eggs with the remaining sugar in a bowl until you have a light cream, then add the flour. Pour in some of the boiling milk, then mix it all into the rest of the boiling milk and beat the cream vigorously away from the flame. Finally, pour in the brandy. Pour three quarters of the hot cream onto the pastry base. Cut the pears in half, core them and cut them into fairly thick slices, stick them vertically into the crème, making sure they are nicely arranged, and cover them with the rest of the crème. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes.
Dilute the apricot jam with a little of the cooking juice from the pears and the brandy and spread evenly over the cake.
Pears, the aristocratic fruit
Apples and pears should not be lumped together, but they are related to each other, because both fruits belong to the rose family. The robust, resistant apple can be characterized as a democratic fruit, says Waverley Root in his "Mundbuch" (Eichborn Verlag), pears, on the other hand, are a demanding, sensitive, an aristocratic fruit.
The so-called "wild pear tree"originated in China and has gone wild in our country. It has thorny short shoots and its small fruits - called wood pears - have many stony callouses around the core. The fruit cannot be eaten, but schnapps can be distilled from it. Most of the better pears are descended from wild pear trees; other wild varieties from the Near East and the Near East are the ancestors of other pear varieties. Shortly after Christ's birth, the Roman scholar Pliny is said to have known 41 different varieties of pears; today there are around 5000 worldwide. The pear owes its popularity to its excellent reputation among gourmets, from Lucullus to Louis XIV, the Sun King. His fondness for pears spurred French farmers to breed and graft ever new varieties. Many of the old varieties, especially from the once large group of cooking pears, which, small and hard as they were, could not be eaten raw, have disappeared from the market, which is a pity, as they were excellent preserves.
A universal but good substitute has become widely available Williams Christ pears, which are good with everything. Of unknown parentage, it was known in England by 1770 and named for its propagator. Its flesh, though not very aromatic, is fine and juicy, and on top of that it is so thin-skinned that even in the finest circles peeling is not necessary. What one should leave with pears anyway, because the vitamin and mineral content of the peels is up to seven times higher than that of the flesh.
The best pear known to the market leader is called Beurré Hardy or Gellert's butter pear and has been common in France since 1830. The flesh of the plump fruit impresses as immensely juicy, sweet and aromatic. Unfortunately, it is very sensitive to pressure, so it is rarely found, not cheap to boot.
At Kraft's stand, however, owner Sharokh Hosseini gives preference to the Comice, known to us as the Vereinsdechantsbirne. It too originates from France and its aroma is considered unsurpassable. It belongs to the late ripening varieties. Good Luise, however, with a strong flavour and firm enough to be exposed to heat, comes on the market earlier. Like Italian Abate and Santa Maria pears.
Hosseini, who has been in Germany since he was 18, is a civil engineer by training, but he also makes a living from his fruit stand, with longer working hours, but without stress. He grew up on the Caspian Sea, Persia's orchard; pears, however, are considered a specialty of the northwestern province of Azerbaijan. What people there do with them, however, Hosseini does not know to say; but we want to bake a pear cake: with plump "Gute Luise".
Fruits, exotic fruits and vegetables
Karin Kraft
Kleinmarkthalle, Stand 94/95
Hasengasse 7
60311 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: 0171-8871499
from Waldemar Thomas