Ploughman’s with Homemade Pear Butter for Sunday Lunch

Homemade pear butter, a round of Moonstruck Baby Blue, dill pickles, a loaf of fresh ciabatta and perhaps the last tomato from the plants that have become like friends — very generous friends — during their 41/2 months in the pots around our picnic table.

Early fall on Pender:  the harvest is in, the sun is playing a re-run of its summer splendour, and there’s nothing to do but enjoy it all with a lingering liquid lunch, at said picnic table, on the back deck.  Oh, there’s tomatoes to trash, leaves to rake and garlic to plant…but not today.

Today, we’re on island time.

Fruit butter brings homemade sweetness to a quick winter’s breakfast of toast and coffee, or makes a rich, honeyed base for cheese on crackers.  Add some red wine, and you have a party in front of the fire when the power goes out (which it does here on a semi-regular basis during the winter).  It also makes amazing Christmas gifts.

However you use it, the 3 hours spent in the kitchen making it are TOTALLY worth it.

Homemade Pear Butter
Yield:  (6) 250ml jars

Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and roughly chopped	3 kg (about 12 large)
Cider Vinegar	½ C
Lemon Zest	1 lemon
Vanilla Bean	1 whole, split
Salt	½ t
Sugar	2 C

kg= kilograms    C=Cup      t=teaspoon

In a large saucepan combine the pears, vinegar, lemon zest, vanilla bean halves and salt.  Cook gently over medium-low heat until the pears are very soft and begin to break up – about 30-40 minutes. Remove from heat and remove the vanilla bean, but do not discard.

Puree the pears in a food mill fitted with fine plate, or use a spatula (and a little muscle) to force the pears through a fine sieve.  Discard the very small amount of fibrous pulp that you won’t be able to get through the sieve.

Scrape the seeds from the now cooled vanilla bean and add them, as well as the pear puree and sugar, to a clean pot over medium-low heat.  Cook, stirring often, until the pear butter is thick and mounds high on a spoon – about 1–1½ hours.  Reduce the heat slightly as the mixture thickens to avoid it scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Fill sterilized 250ml jars, and process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Notes:

• In my last batch, I used 2 whole star anise instead of the vanilla bean.  I removed them before putting the pears through the sieve, and then added them back, whole, to the puree while it cooked.  My instincts about a good match between the licorice and the pear were totally substantiated, and even the doubters (Howard) had to admit it was probably better than the vanilla version from last year.
• I also used ½ a preserved lemon rind, finely minced, instead of the zest.  We noticed a deeper (yet still subtle) taste of citrus from the preserved lemon.  Either are lovely — use what you have.