Poached Pears...Yumm!

I've finally got my groove back (so to speak) and have been experimenting
with my pastry skills. Nothing fancy, just trying out new flavours and ideas for upcoming events.
Part of my return to T.O. includes my sisters' upcoming wedding in 2 weeks and I am going to take this opportunity and cater a few pastries for parties and maybe some take home goodies for the wedding reception!

I had a craving for pears this afternoon...and this led me to experiment with my love for yogurt. I am a huge fan of Greek yogurt - I eat it for breakfast everyday! This is one thing I cannot give up and it has to be authentic - flown in from Greece! (Yes, I have found some great stores that carry it!) Lucky me! It's hard enough to be away from Paris where I could get this from my corner grocer with no problem and half the cost...but ehh! oh, and the 10% fat content isn't really killing me or affecting my waistline...

So, I made poached pears...soaked in a nice Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot and served over thick Greek yogurt. This makes a lighter dessert but you can substitute it for a nice Vanilla Bean ice cream. It's essential to use a nice ice cream here for maximum flavour. Here is what you'll need to serve 4:

2 small pears Forelle pears
250 ml red wine
1/2 cup sugar
1 large cinnamon stick
1 green cardamom pod
half grapefruit rind

Peel and quarter pears - leave the stems attached. Place side down into saucepan (don't overcrowd - they should be in a single layer). Pour over the wine, sugar, cinnamon stick and cardamom. Bring to a boil, add in grapefruit rind, cover and simmer for 15 min.

Remove pears (liquid should be reduced by half at this point) and set aside. Reduce the remaining liquid until it becomes very thick (about 5 min more...).

Fill four dessert glasses with yogurt and drizzle liquid around yogurt. Centre the fruit and garnish as desiered. Drizzle remaining liquid...Enjoy!

Rungis!

We went on our class trip to Rungis yesterday. Let me explain - this is the biggest market (it has a surface area of 232 hectares) in the world. It's absolutely huge and a Chef's dream!
Fresh meat, fish, dairy produce and flowers at your fingertips and all fresh as quality control is of the utmost importance!

We got up super early for our grand tour and arrived at the market around 7am and we proceeded to enter the meat building. I took lots of pictures - they really are worth 1,000 words, if not more. ha! It was quite an experience and I really was in awe of the setup of the buildings and how efficiently this market is run. Like clockwork and everything is synchronized right down to the tracing of the meat etc. The only thing we did not get to see in the market was the fish building as this is done at night between the hours of 1am -6am.

Enjoy the photos and check out the Rungis Market website if you're interested in more information!