{"id":524,"date":"2008-11-07T16:23:59","date_gmt":"2008-11-07T21:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/?p=524"},"modified":"2011-07-06T19:53:07","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T00:53:07","slug":"197-balsamic-roasted-pears-with-pepper-and-honey-p809","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/?p=524","title":{"rendered":"197. Balsamic-Roasted Pears with Pepper and Honey p.809"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/197_balsamic_roasted_pears_with_pepper_and_honey_p809.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-525\" title=\"197_balsamic_roasted_pears_with_pepper_and_honey_p809\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/197_balsamic_roasted_pears_with_pepper_and_honey_p809.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"461\" height=\"346\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/197_balsamic_roasted_pears_with_pepper_and_honey_p809.jpg 461w, http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/197_balsamic_roasted_pears_with_pepper_and_honey_p809-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\" http:\/\/www.epicurious.com\/recipes\/food\/views\/Balsamic-Roasted-Pears-with-Pepper-and-Honey-103974\">The recipe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is how dessert should be, simple, elegant, and not too heavy. I&#8217;m rarely in the mood for a slice of cake right after dinner, and the yen for creamy or frozen treats is even more infrequent. However, a cheese plate is always a welcome addition to a meal. I associate this kind of dessert with Italy, almost every menu has some combination of pear and cheese, and honey is a common touch. One handwritten menu I saw there advertised the Cheese and Fear plate, I was hoping for a high concept dessert, but it was just a typo.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The dish is simple to prepare. You roast pears in a buttered dish for 20 minutes, then pour balsamic over-top and roast for 5 minutes more. Plate the pears, drizzle them with the juices in the pan, and serve with slices of Manchego. Drizzle the plate with honey, and a few grinds of pepper, then serve.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0With hardly any effort you can create a satisfying end to a big meal. It can pretty well all be done ahead, just pop the pears in the oven while you&#8217;re clearing the dishes, and they&#8217;ll be ready once everyone&#8217;s finished up their glass of wine. The presentation is really simple, but it looks great. Pears have a great affinity for cheeses, and the balsamic glaze makes the whole interaction more appealing. The few grinds of pepper emphasize the sweet-savoury interplay of the dish.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bad:<\/strong> For my money, this dish could have moved a little more to the savoury side. I found the total effect of the roasted pears + balsamic + honey to be pushing the balance too far to the sweet. A more assertively flavoured cheese, or a more acidic balsamic might have brought things into balance. Also, some nuts would have been a very nice addition to the plate. Roasting pears is a delicate affair. I like them roasted so that they loose their gritty-grainy texture, but I don&#8217;t want them to turn to mush. Mine ended up a little too firm, half an hour in the oven might have served them better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Verdict:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0Overall I was quite happy with this dish, and I&#8217;ll certainly make variations on it again. I think disliking sweet desserts is largely my own personal issue, so it may not turn others off this dish at all. Even with a little more sugar than I would have liked it was an excellent way to finish our dinner.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative; height: 25px; width: 125px\">\n<div style=\"position: absolute; top:0; left:0; height: 25px; width: 100px; background: url(http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/wp-content\/plugins\/rating-bar\/rating-front.png) left\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 100px; height: 25px; width: 25px; background: url(http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/wp-content\/plugins\/rating-bar\/rating-back.png) right\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recipe This is how dessert should be, simple, elegant, and not too heavy. I&#8217;m rarely in the mood for a slice of cake right after dinner, and the yen for creamy or frozen treats is even more infrequent. However, a cheese plate is always a welcome addition to a meal. I associate this kind [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,2],"tags":[206,1001,1002,56,37,131,49,1003,1000,69,1004,199],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=524"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":605,"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524\/revisions\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gourmetproject.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}