Back to Cloves

There were those wonderful pear desserts that my Grandma would make when we were coming over for a Sunday dinner. Pears cooked in syrup, served with velvety egg-vanilla cream... Delicious... Grandma knew I and my sister loved them, so mostly there were extra servings waiting for the two of us. I still remember the flavor and aroma of those pears - and I admit that I have never managed to get even close to them with the ones I am making sometimes. And I guess I never will - the dinners at Grandma's, blue chairs that I hated because the textile on them was so rough, old white plates with some floral border, big forks and knives (those I hated just as much as I hated the blue chairs. They were so damn heavy...), all these are beautiful memories of my childhood. You can't compete with memories, can you? So, I stopped trying to reproduce that taste I remember. Let it belong to my Grandma's pears in cream, let it be ever special and ever the best. Let it come to me in memories every time I am cooking pears and the kitchen is full of the cloves' aroma. Good thing there are cloves and they always smell the same...

Pears in Wine
(4 servings)

4 big pears
1.1/2 glass white wine
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cranberry preserve
4 -5 whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons sherry
whipped cream and a little bit of cranberry preserve to serve (optional) 

Pare the pears, leaving them whole with the stems attached.
Put all the ingredients except sherry in a skillet, bring to boiling.
Turn down the heat, add the pears and let them simmer for about 40-45 minutes - just until they become transparent at the edges. Get pears out and set them aside to cool.
Add sherry to the syrup, bring it to boiling and let boil for another 20-25 minutes, until it becomes very thick. Pour syrup over the pears, chill thoroughly.
You can serve these pears with whipped cream and a little bit of cranberry preserve, but they also taste very nice just by themselves.

Food Is Sexy

Well, food can be sexy, to be precise. It all goes about the right attitude and some little details.
Think, what is this little something that makes a person sexy? Is it just the looks? Somehow, I don't think so... Personally I do not see anything sexy about beautiful people who do not have anything but the looks to offer. To me the most exciting people are the ones who do not show everything on the outside, they just give some hint: "hey, there is something about me you might want to discover". If they are not liars and there really is something to be discovered - they are sexy to me. And if the discovery part can last forever and I never get even close to getting bored and saying "Hey, now I know everything about you" - well, I would call it damn sexy, to be honest. But to be even more honest, if those damn sexy people are handsome at the same time... well, it doesn't hurt at all.
The same rule applies to food - for me, at least. I don't want those perfect supermarket apples of same shape, same size and same color, but with no taste at all. I don't like food arranged on a plate in a fancy way when the fancy look is about the only thing the plate has to offer. You see it, you want to try it, and when you do - there goes the disappointment... What I like - and what I think exciting - is food in which I can taste something new with almost every bite. Food, that does not unveil all of it's secrets until I taste it - and when I taste it I want to taste more, because there still seems to be something hidden... And when the food is looking exciting as well... This is what I call sexy food. Exactly.

Melon and pomegranate salad

(4 servings)

1 tasty melon

1 pomegranate

1 lime, juiced

100ml pale sherry

1 teaspoon castor sugar

freshly ground pepper

Spoon out the melon flesh - you can either have it in little balls or in thin slices (this is how I prefer it).

De-seed the pomegranate making sure that the seeds are clean of any bits of the membrane. Doing this carefully, so that the juice doesn't stain your clothes and half of your kitchen ;)

Put the melon and pomegranate seeds in layers into the serving bowls or glasses and place them in a fridge to cool down nicely.

Before serving mix lime juice with sherry and sugar, pour it over the fruit and top everything with a dash or two of freshly ground pepper.

Enjoy your salad :)