Pear & Goat Cheese Papillote

Tags

dessert, goat cheese, honey, pears

I’ve wandered back to this recipe on frenchwomendontgetfat.com over and over again in the past few weeks, but never had the pears and goat cheese on hand at the same time.  So last night, I decided it was time to finally try it.  On my way to my boyfriend’s, I swung by the Harvest Co-op Market in Central Square.  I picked up Bosc pears, fresh goat cheese, and a small wedge of blue cheese.  This recipe is incredibly simple and delicious.

The original recipe called for making a yogurt sauce, but I was feeling lazy.  It is summer, after all.  So instead, I drizzled the dish with honey after removing it from the oven.  No yogurt sauce needed!  Ta-da!  I also went a little light on the cheese.  I used the amount called for of goat cheese, but only about half of the called-for blue cheese.  The cheeses do melt and mix wonderfully, it just seemed like a lot of cheese as I was piling it on.  Feel free to adjust to your taste!  The parchment paper papillotes are a little tricky, but that could’ve been because I was at the end of the roll and my pieces were particularly curly.  Still, some good squishing and folding will do the trick.

Lesson of the day: en papillote means “in parchment” in French.  It is a method of cooking in which the food is put into pouch-like folded parchment paper and then baked.  This steams the food.  It’s not only for fruit – try it with salmon, veggies, other meats, etc.

Pear and Goat Cheese Papillote

4 pears

juice of 1 lemon (I used a lemon juice squeegie and guess-timated how much lemon juice to use)

4 oz fresh goat cheese

2 oz fresh blue cheese

2 T olive oil

1 T fresh chervil or tarragon (use 1/3-1/2 T if using dried herbs)

Salt and pepper (optional)

Note:  This recipe yields 4 smaller servings or 2 platefuls.  Divvy up the pears amongst your choice of 2, 3, or 4 servings.  The recipe directions are written for 4 servings.

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2.  Peel the pears (optional – I didn’t).  Slice into quarters and then cut the quarters into thirds (large chunks).  Add lemon juice. (I dumped all the pears into a bowl and smothered them in lemon juice until I had the parchment paper ready.)

3.  Cut 8 pieces of parchment paper (use aluminum foil if you don’t have the paper) into squares large enough to hold 1 pear’s worth of pieces and 1 oz. of cheese, with 2 inches extra on each side.  Brush 4 squares with olive oil (these will be the bottoms of the papillotes).

4.  Arrange the pear slices equally among the 4 oiled squares.  Slice the goat cheese and arrange on top of each papillote.  Crumble blue cheese on top, sprinkle with chervil (I used dried tarragon leaves), and add salt and pepper if desired.

5.  Place the other squares of parchment paper on top of each serving and fold up all edges to make the papillotes. (Double folding each side and pinching in the corners works well.)

6.  Place papillotes on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.  (If your cheese was fresh out of the fridge, you’ll need closer to 15 for the melted consistency.)

7.  When done baking, remove from oven; open each packet and carefully slide onto a plate.  Drizzle with honey and serve warm.

Enjoy your summery dessert!

I’d also like to give a shout-out to all Dads, particularly mine! Happy Father’s Day!!! 🙂

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Tags

dessert, pie, rhubarb, strawberries, strawberry

My first attempt at pie, I’m proud to say, was a success.  I found a recipe here, via Tastespotting.com.  I’d never worked with rhubarb before, and I didn’t even know what to look for in the grocery store!  However, I managed to find some at the awesome Harvest Co-op on Mass. Ave. in Central Square.

On to the baking:  I was worried about making the dough, since I definitely wanted to do that from scratch but my experience was nill.  I also used whole wheat flour because, really, what kind of attempt at healthy would my life be if I used the ultra-bleached kind?  After nervously letting the dough chill for over an hour, I set to work on the filling.  Realizing I had not bought enough rhubarb to make 4 cups, I added extra strawberries and lowered the sugar to 1/2 cup to compensate.  I was quite pleased with my dough and even attempted a lattice pattern on top!  And it worked!  And looked gorgeous!

Into the oven my pie went.  Forty-five minutes later, I had gorgeous, sweet-smelling pie (that also happened to drip a bunch of strawberry-rhubarb juice on the bottom of my oven).  After letting it cool, I stuck it in the freezer for faster cooling 🙂  It was not destined to be eaten in my kitchen.  No, the yummy stuff, per usual, was being brought over to the boyfriend’s place.  I had told him earlier that day that I was going home to make a surprise.  He was surprised!

I did try to remember to take a picture, but at the last moment I forgot!  So then I told my boyfriend to take a picture, but he has yet to do so.  I will try again later (apparently there’s still pie left from Saturday – *gasp!*), but it may be only a sliver of a picture.

UPDATE:  He got a picture!  Here it is:

My boyfriend got a picture after we'd eaten a good chunk of it...

The rest of the weekend has been very pleasant, particularly since I’ve had off from classes both yesterday and today. Yay for Massachusetts and Patriots’ Day!  But it’s back to the grind tomorrow – that is, after my anniversary dinner with my boyfriend!!  I can’t believe it’s been a year!  I do adore him, and I’m so excited.  The locale: Veggie Planet! (We’re low-key and awesome like that.) ❤