This Thanksgiving, my sister, Jessie, and I wanted to contribute to the feast, especially since we were hosting Turkey Day at our place this year. My grandma and papa were busy at work creating a new kind of pumpkin custard that would suit everyone's allergies and diets. Jessie and I wanted to try something new, easy, and healthy(ish), so I scoured the internet for recipes. I settled on poached pears and a Moroccan carrot salad called parve.
Here is the recipe we used for the poached pears:
| POACHED PEARS | |
6 oz. frozen cranberry juice cocktail concentrated 1 c. water 12 pears, firm but ripe 1 (3 inch long) cinnamon stick Mix cranberry juice concentrate with water in a pot large enough to hold pears in a single layer. Partially peel pears (4 or 5 strips lengthwise). Add pears and cinnamon sticks to cranberry juice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 12 minutes. Turn pears once. Cool in saucepan. Serve with liquid and cinnamon. For festive dessert garnish with thinly sliced lemon. Serves 6. | |
We wanted to double the recipe, but when Jessie went to the supermarket, she had trouble finding enough fresh pears to even make the original recipe. She was eventually able to find everything on our shopping list except for the cranberry juice. The frozen juice aisle only had cranberry/raspberry juice, so that's what we got.
We decided to poach the pears on Wednesday night, in case we needed to buy a replacement dessert on Thursday. The strips on the pears were a great idea from the recipe, because the exposed parts of the pears were died pink by the cranberry juice, resulting in a more festive-looking desert. We ended up boiling the pears much longer than the recipe called for, because the pears did not seem to soak up enough of the juice. The resulting pears looked like this:
I'll definitely be doing more fruit poaching in the future, because I loved how soft these pears were. They got even softer after soaking in the fridge for a few days. The fruit will also stay good for much longer, just like canned fruit, because of the sugar.
Thursday morning, Jessie and I started on the parve. Jessie really did the whole thing, from slicing and cooking the carrots, to spicing it up. The whole process did not take long at all, aside from the cooling. Here's the recipe we used:
Moroccan Carrot Salad (Parve)
Ingredients:
- 6-7 carrots, sliced into rounds
- 3 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp. cumin
- 1/2 tsp. paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
1. Bring water, with salt, to a boil.2. Add the carrot rounds to the pot. Boil for 8 minutes.
3. Drain. Rinse under cold water.
4. In a small bowl, mix lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin and paprika.
5. Pour dressing over carrots and mix well.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
The sauce for the parve turned out really really garlicky, so Jess suggested that we add sugar, which was a good idea. We agreed that next time we'd add even more sugar, as the garlic was a little too strong. The carrots went over really well at Thanksgiving; a lot of people seemed to like them. I myself, thought they were a little too bitter. I tasted them later, and realized that they tasted better the longer they were in the fridge. Next time I'll make it a few days in advance. Here are the pictures of the parve:
Grandma and Papa's pumpkin custard turned out really great too. The pumpkin custard was set apart from other custards in the way the texture tasted. It was not a regular custard, and that made for a nice twist.
I wonder what interesting new dishes we'll be trying next year.
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