A Pear of Pairs Dinner
- Luci, Michele, and Billa
- 10 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Billa
Avocados used to be known as alligator pears. I thought it’d be fun to have a dinner where each course included the ingredients of pear and avocado, hence “a pair of pears”.
This is what the menu looked like:
A Pair of Pears
Drinks
Pear Juice
*Prickly Pear Agua Fresca
Appetizers
Michele’s Bosc Pear and Gruyere
**Alligator Pear and Goat Cheese Mash on Cucumber
Salad
Luci’ Asian and Alligator Pears in Salad and Vinaigrette
Entree
Chicken and Seckel Pears Braised in Lemon Mustard Sauce
Horseradish Mashed Potatoes (Pear-Shaped)
Spinach, Broccoli, and Pea Puree (Alligator Pear-Shaped)
Desserts
Stuffed Poached D’Anjou Pear Wrapped in Pastry
Alligator Pear Cream
Pistachio Gelato
*Although the prickly pear resembles a pear in size and shape, it is not a member of the pear family.
**The avocado’s original English name was "alligator pear,” which comes from a combination of the fruit's pear-like shape and its rough, bumpy skin that resembles an alligator's, with some sources suggesting the "alligator" part might also be influenced by the idea that the fruit grew in alligator-infested areas. Consumers didn’t like the name, so, in 1914, a group of farmers renamed it “avocado,” to roughly reflect its Aztec origins, as they called it ahuacate.
Of course, there was pear juice. In addition, my husband, Martin, made a prickly pear agua fresca. And even though prickly pear is not really a pear, it did fulfill the “pair of pears” theme. Plus, it was unusual, refreshing and absolutely delicious, tart and sweet with an almost syrupy mouth feel.
The agua fresca recipe can be found here:
The only change he made was to use 3 tablespoons of sugar instead of four. We found it to be sweet enough.
Michele made the simple but delicious pear and cheese appetizer; the sharpness of the cheese contrasting pleasantly with the sweetness of the pear. It was cleverly presented in small pear-shaped dishes. Here’s how she prepared it:
Bosc pears were sliced thin, then topped with some lemon juice and black pepper. They were paired with a thin slice of gruyere cheese.
For the avocado appetizer, I combined 2 ounces of goat cheese with a ripe, mashed avocado. I added 2 teaspoons lemon juice, some salt, and a dash of tabasco. Then I placed the mixture in a plastic baggie with a small corner snipped off, and piped it onto 1/4-inch rounds of seedless cucumber. Small squares of sun-dried tomato topped each appetizer. I liked the avocado/goat cheese mousse a lot. I think next time I might use thin kohlrabi circles instead of the cucumber.
The chicken with pears recipe came from Food52. It is one of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever tasted - tender, juicy, and tangy. Here’s the link to the recipe:
Accompanying the chicken was a spinach, broccoli, and pea puree that closely mimicked the color of avocados and somewhat resembled the avocado’s shape. I used a half of an avocado shell to mold the puree. There were also horseradish mashed potatoes in the shape of a pear with a pistachio stem.
Luci made a terrific salad with Asian pears and avocado and an avocado oil/pear balsamic vinaigrette. Her recipe follows.
Asian Pear and Avocado Salad and Vinaigrette
Here is a double dose of a winning combination.
Serves 6
Ingredients
Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 medium garlic clove, grated
1/2 cup avocado oil
1/4 cup pear balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 grinds black pepper
Salad
4 cups baby arugula
1large Asian pear, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 medium Haas avocados, cut into bite-sized pieces
Preparation
Combine all vinaigrette ingredients in a glass jar. Shake well. Rest for at least 3 hours, shaking occasionally.
Just before serving, place arugula in salad bowl and mix in the vinaigrette. Add the pear and avocado and mix gently.
There were 3 components to the dessert. The first was an avocado cream, a sweet Brazilian dessert.
The second was a raspberry-stuffed pear baked in pastry. It was accompanied by a luscious chocolate chip pistachio gelato.
The pear recipe came from L’Auberge Provencale Inn in Boyce, Virginia. It can be accessed here:
And while I thought the dessert was impressive, there were a couple of errors with the recipe. First, it calls for 2 and 1/2 pints of raspberries. The most I could stuff into 6 pears was a half a pint. Second, it said to bake the pears for 20-25 minutes, but they were barely ready at 35. I think the baking time should be more like 40-45 minutes. Finally, the pastry in the finished photo does not match the instructions. Nowhere does it say to wrap the pears in strips of pastry, instead it says to wrap them like beggars’ purses.
Here’s what the table looked like. Those green pears on the table had pear trivia questions on the underside.
Perhaps you’d like to take the quiz and see how much you know about pears (answers follow):
Pear Trivia Quiz
1. Eighty-eight percent of our country’s pears are grown in which two states:
a. Alabama and Georgia
b. California and New Jersey
c. Michigan and Wisconsin
d. Oregon and Washington
2. How many varieties of pears are there?
a. 30
b. 60
c. 600
d. 3000
3. Which pear is considered the sweetest?
a. D’Anjou
b. Comice
c. Forelle
d. Seckel
4. Pears were first cultivated around 5000 years ago in
a. China
b. England
c. France
d. Greece
5. In the song “On the twelve days of Christmas my true love gave to me” how many pears
were given?
a. None
b. One
c. Six
d. Three
6. Chinese farmers place a mold around young pears so they develop a shape similar to the
Buddha. How much does a Buddha pear sell for?
a. $4
b. $10
c. $20
d. $40
7. In Chinese culture, the pear is a symbol of
a. fertility.
b. immortality.
c. invincibility.
d. justice.
8. The US grows 12 kinds of pears. Which is the most popular?
a. Anjou
b. Bartlett
c. Bosc
d. Comice
9. In which country do people consume the most avocados per capita?
a. China
b. Dominican Republic
c. Indonesia
d. Mexico
10. Which of the following animals can safely eat avocados:
a. Birds
b. Dogs
c. Hippos
d. Horses
Answers
d. Oregon and Washington
d. 3,000
b. Comice
a. China
a. None
b. $10
b. Immortality
b. Bartlett
b. Dominican Republic
c. Hippos
Gourmet dining, scintillating company, a memorable evening.