Dessert for breakfast

I’m not a fruit fan. I choose a carrot for sweetness and crunch any day and bananas are just the main ingredient in banana loaf. I wondered with amazement what my body was missing nutritionally when I was craving Cripps apples at some stage. Look them up or better yet, find a good organic stockiest and taste one. Not too sweet, consistently crisp.

When I do deign to desire a fruit, I don’t mind a pear in season. I’ve been known to be fond of a Forelle or two, but not too much, but goodness it must not be soft. I think there is something supremely nostalgic for me in a pear. I remember eating dried pears as a child on holidays as a treat. In that dried mixed fruit bag, where my sisters and cousins would go for the peaches, I loved the pears and apricots for their tartness. That is the only soft pear I’ll bear, in a dried fruit bag. Though knowing what I know now about food and fructose and the various chemicals that can be present in dried fruit, I prefer my fruit fresh or not at all.

I also loved stewed fruit in a hotel buffet as a child. Yum! Fruit salad with the orange juice mixed in is probably the genesis of my fruit fears. Stewed fruit also had pears and prunes in. As I’ve grown older and increasingly interested in food and its benefits for our bodies, I’ve read somewhat on Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese medicine and they both espouse the virtues and benefits of stewed or cooked pears or apples in the morning. I’ve tried it many times and can say that I’ve enjoyed the feeling in my tummy. As an advocate for no waste, it’s such a great way to use fruit that’s coming to the end of its days in the fruit bowl or the fridge.

We went to see a dietitian many years ago — my older sister and I — and she had a meal plan for me that included baking pears. While I found her recipe a little bland, I thought that cinnamon can elevate it. The more I learnt how to play with flavours and marry them, it elevated my roasted pears into a breakfast I’d wake up ready to roast and rock my day. The love I have for breakfast is inexplicable. I do love that foundation to a day. Everything needs a good base, a soup and a stew, as well as the day we enter into.

Ingredients: Baked pears

1. 6 x pears (stalks and cores removed)
2. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3. A pinch of nutmeg (use sparingly as it can overpower)
4. 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
5. ½ teaspoon of ground cardamom (optional but really elevates the flavour)
6. A pinch of sumac (because I can sneak this in anywhere I can)

Method:

• Pre heat the oven to 190°C
• Place the pears on baking paper on a baking sheet, cut side up
• Sprinkle them with cinnamon, carefully making sure it’s evenly distributed on the pear
• Dot a little a vanilla extract into the centre of each pear (enjoy the smell)
• Sprinkle very little nutmeg, sumac and cardamom on the pears
• Crush a little Maldon salt over each pear before placing into the oven
• Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes until golden and a little crispy edged and the juice is oozing out
• Remove from the oven, allow to cool ever so slightly and then drizzle some wonderful plain yoghurt over and enjoy that balance of flavour and texture.

Meditate, shower, put your coffee on while this bakes and enjoy the delicious scent that fills your home while you wait for these to be ready. This breakfast is comforting from an olfactory sense first, which really is the first part of relishing food and flavours. It may be popular in your households just from the wonderful comforting smell the emanates from the oven. This dish is so fuss free, but brings such a sense of warmth and also achievement so early in the day. You really feel like you start you day winning.