Roasted Pears with Honey, Cinnamon & Cardamom

We were very grateful to have been able to get our hands on a fruit and vegetable box last week. It was filled with all sorts of lovely things and I have been making sure that I make the most of everything that was in the box.

I have been enjoying eating the apples out of hand, and Todd has been enjoying the bananas. One night I made us a cut fruit salad with some of the bananas, some cut up oranges, a kiwi and some coconut.

And of course we have been enjoying the potatoes, onions, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower in the box. I still have parsnips and a butternut squash to make use of. Not a problem.

There was a quantity of Conference pears, which can be awfully hard to eat out of hand, but they are beautiful for cooking with as they hold their shape well.

Conference pears are a medium-sized pear with an elongated bottle aand are quite similar in appearance to the 'Bosc pear'. A table pear, it is suitable for fresh-cut processing. The skin is thick greenish-brown, becoming pale yellow when ripe. The flesh is white, but turns pale yellow when the pear is ripe. The texture is very fine and soft, and the flavour is sweet. They have always reminded me of Russet Apples in a way.

They are beautiful roasted! Roasting softens them up nicely and really enhances their beautiful pear flavour.

This is not so much a recipe as it is a technique which you can apply to any quantity of the hard fleshed fruit. In fact you really want hard fruits for this as they stand up better in the roasting, and hold their shapes well.

To do this I peel the fruit and then I scoop out the seed portion of the fruit using a metal measuring spoon, or a melon baller if you have one. This leaves a little bowl shape, which is perfect for filling with things . . . like little nobs of butter . . .

I lay them out on a baking sheet, lined with paper, cut side up and do just that. Pop a little knob of cold butter into each bowl.

It is probably not more more than 1/4 tsp. We are awfully fond of the flavours of cinnamon and cardamom and so we also sprinkle a modicum of ground cinnamon and ground cardamom over each pear half. I finish them off with a small drizzle of honey and then I roast them in a hot oven . . .

It doesn't take too long . . . only about 20 minutes or so. I start them cut side up, roast for a bit, then flip them over, roast for a bit longer, and then I flip them and cook them just for a little while longer until they are just slightly caramelised and beautifully sticky. These are gorgeous served with a nice dollop of thick yogurt or some cream. Ice cream would also be very nice.