Food & Grocery TT looking for tinned pears

I have not located any tinned pears but may do my own 'poached pears in sparkling wine'. The recipe suggests firm pears (and I do like a firm pair ) so local ones would be suitable and, as in my reply to Jimeve, custard powder can be purchased from Lee Plaza.

Poached pears:
Serves 4

4 firm, medium-sized pears
1 750 ml bottle dry sparkling wine
2 cups water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Slice the bottoms off the pears so that they will stand upright. Peel entirely, being careful to leave stem intact.

In a medium to large pot over a medium flame, combine sparkling wine, water, sugar, vanilla bean and cardamom. Whisk to dissolve the sugar. Once sugar is dissolved but before liquid is boiling, carefully add the pears to the pot. It’s important that they’re completely immersed in the liquid and okay if they’re gently placed on their sides if necessary. Place a small plate over the pears, in the pot, to keep them submerged.

Gently simmer for about 20-25 minutes, until pears are cooked through but still firm. Allow the pears to cool for about 30 minutes in the poaching liquid. At that time, remove pears from the pot.

To make the sauce, bring the liquid to a moderate boil until it has reduced to 1/2 cup. Keep the vanilla bean in the liquid until it is reduced.

Place each pear on a plate or shallow bowl, and drizzle syrup over each.

You can make this a day in advance and reserve it in the fridge.

 

Don't forget if you mix an an equal quantity of Choko's you end up with what is basically Tinned Pears. My mother use to do that back in Oz and you cannot tell the difference between a Choko and a Pear once they are sweetened side by side.

 

What is a "Choko" Brian (a pear-like fruit, I assume) and can it be purchased locally?

 

Chokos
Brian, I thought I would just answer this. Notmyrealname, It looks like you cook a little. Brian knows a lot about the native plants that are good substitutes for what we are used to as regular food. He has given me the scoop on some kind of weed that grows here that tastes like spinach. I am not into "adventures in eating" so I am reluctant to try some things. I'm American so I've never eaten "tinned" pears, only "canned".
P.S. Unless you are VERY adventurous though, screen his advice on meats. No offense Brian, I know it all tastes just like chicken.

 

Everything tastes like chicken with the right spices mate lol

Correct on the Choko's, they are common in Australia and easy to grow at home, just take a Choko that is sprouting, wait, as soon as it begins to root throw it in the ground and let it run amok! I have used Choko's in many types of cooking as it easily absorbs the flavours of the foods you are cooking it with. I would have thought that they were also common in America and Britain?

An interesting article I read on Choko's also suggested that they could be substituted for Apples. After eating them mixed with Pears I believe this would be 100% possible;

Folklore – “Choko in the Macca’s Apple Pie”
In Australia, where it is called choko, a persistent rumour is that McDonald’s apple pies were made of chokos, not apples. This eventually led McDonald’s to emphasise the fact that real apples are used in their pies. This legend was based on an earlier belief that tinned pears were often disguised chokos. A possible explanation for the rumour is that there are a number of recipes in Australia that advise chokos can be used in part replacement of canned apples to make the fruit go farther in making apple pies. This likely arose because of the economies of “mock” food substitutes during the Depression Era, shortages of canned fruit in the years following World War II, and the fact apples do not grow in many tropical and subtropical parts of Australia, making them scarce. Chokos, on the other hand, grow extensively in Australia, with many suburban backyards featuring choko vines growing along their fence lines.


Another possible reason for the rumour of McDonald’s apple pies containing chokos was that it was thought that apples would degenerate and become soggy and inedible in a McDonald’s pie, whereas chokos are well known to retain their firmness and consistency after cooking, freezing, and reheating. It was thought that the “chunks” of apple in the pie were in fact chunks of choko, and the sauce and filling were simply a spiced, apple flavoured concoction.
Choko

The Weed you referred to is Egyptian Spinach;


The stuff grows wild around here and I remember it in Australia but never knew you could eat it, it actually tastes nice when added to a Soup. Amazing how many weeds are edible!

Molokhia Cultivation In Gardens – Tips For Growing Egyptian Spinach Plants

Garden Adventures: Molokhia (Egyptian spinach)

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2012/sept/molokia.html

Other things that surprised me was eating the vines from Sweet Potato, Pumpkin/Squash vines, green (unripe) Papaya, raw Mexican Turnips (singkamas) and Green Mango which to me is VILE! lol

 

That looks like SAYOTE to my inexperienced eye - am I correct? Sayote was totally new to me and when I first arrived in Phil I didn't know for sure what to eat, so kept eating sayote soup.

I think after carrots it is one of my favourite vegetables, but my wife says it is very difficult to peel and is persuading me not to eat it!

And I know all about Brians' VERY WIDE taste in meat - if it crawls, slides, hovers or slithers, then it is 'fair game mate'! But he survives by accepting and adapting and come the 'BIG CRUNCH' we will all be starving whilst he sits merrily in his enclave and tucks into: Starter 'Gecko soup'', Main 'Snake au vin', Pudding 'Something indescribable'.

So, everyone on this forum, be nice to him - you never know when you will be eating 'rat livers toasted in a crust of crushed ant' at his place and be loving it.

 

Not the Gecko's mate, I like those lil fellas! Rat, it had want to be well BBQ'd before I take a bite out of one of those things! Ants, I did try those Green Ants back in Oz I once saw Aboriginals eating, they say they taste like limes, I say they p*ss (formic?) acid like the creature from Alien! Bleh!

I have to admit once I never liked to peel Choko's either, they are sticky and slimy, an unpleasant feeling that sticks to you like Corn Starch! But I have worked it out now, I cut them in half, slice out the seed inside, then peel them in water using a standard peeler, that way you do not get the slimy feeling on you

 

My wife told me that she found the skin too tough to cut, but you may be right about her not liking to be covered in slime ---- I must take note!

 

Try it yourself mate, put water in the sink, then cut in half under water, slice out the seed then using a good vegetable peeler, simply peel away the skin nipping off the ends if they are a tad to wrinkly to peel cleanly. You end up with non-slimy hands and cleanly peeled Choko to use as a vegetable in cooking or for padding up your Apple or Pear conserves!
Oh; and back in the day when Potatoes were expensive, my mother would slice into Chips and deep fry the Choko to cook her version of poor man's Potato Chips! I did the same here recently when we only had a few Potatoes on hand, the girls never even noticed... Yummo!