Poached pears with fleur de sel caramel sauce

Name: Poached pears with fleur de sel caramel sauce (Poires pochées au caramel et à la fleur de sel)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: Serves: 4
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 50 g (2 oz) caster sugar; pinch of fleur de sel; 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) caster sugar; 4 strawberries, halved, to decorate; 2 tbsp crème fraîche; 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways; chopped hazelnuts, to decorate; 4 scoops of pear sorbet; 25 g (1 oz) butter; 4 sprigs of mint, to decorate; 500 ml (18 fl oz) water; 4 conference pears (fairly firm), peeled, cored and left whole

Poires pochées au caramel et à la fleur de sel

Preparation info

Serves:
4

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
40 min

Appears in

New Bistro

By Fran Warde

Published 2009

About

This recipe is simply divine, believe me! I love the caramel sauce and the pears poached in a vanilla syrup, all topped with a few chopped hazelnuts. Christopher serves his with a scoop of pear sorbet — but I love it on its own.

Ingredients

500 ml (18 fl oz) water
500 g (1

Europe
France
Dessert
Gluten-free
Mediterranean

Method

Place the water in a pan with the sugar and vanilla pod and heat until a syrup is formed. Carefully place the pears in the syrup and put a round of greaseproof paper on top of them weighted down with a wooden spoon — this helps to keep the pears submerged in the syrup. Simmer the pears for 20 minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to cool in the syrup.

To make the caramel sauce, g