Poached pears – If there’s one thing that really annoys me…

Yes, I am having a rant and you may be in my line of fire. You may be the cause of my ire and anger. But, as we say here in Ireland: If the cap fits, wear it. If you take offence, suck it up. Because I am beyond caring. I have reached the end of my rope. I am saying what I need to say and you better just take it on the chin.

You may be thinking “Oooh, what could I have done to offend him?” or “He couldn’t be upset at anything I have done. Sure, I hardly know the man.” But you might be one of them. You may be part of that cohort of people who cause me confusion and give me heartache. You might be the one that gets right up my nose.

OK, let’s narrow the field. If you’re a food blogger, you are possibly one of these offenders. Not every food blogger does it but a number of you do and it boils my blood. It puts me in a white rage. You write a post with a nice, pithy story, often about your blooming family (read that either way, I don’t care). Having drawn me in with a lovely tale, you finish the post with a recipe that bears absolutely no relationship to the contents of the story. What the hell are you playing at?

Poached pears

• 6 to 8 pears
• 200 gms of honey
• 200 gms of brown sugar
• juice of an orange
• zest of half that orange
• 2 star anise
• 500ml of water (or enough to cover the pears in the pot)
• Some vanilla ice cream to serve

Peel the pears, doing your best to keep the stalks on. I failed on a few of them. Put them with all the other ingredients into a pot and bring them to a boil.

The other ingredients bar the water and ice cream. Don’t boil the ice cream.

Simmer for 30 minutes or so. Take them out and let them cool completely.

The pears cooling. Notice the missing stalks, if you can notice something that is missing, that is.

Reduce the poaching mixture by about three-quarters so you have a nice sticky sauce remaining. Fish out the star anise and serve over the pears with a nice piece of ice cream.

Notice the addition of the piece of mint (from the garden). Very professional!