Poached williams pear with chilled rice pudding

Serves  4

For the poached pears

4 Williams pears, peeled and cored
500g caster sugar
1litre water
1 slice of lemon

Boil the water with the sugar and lemon in a medium-sized pan and reduce the heat.  Add the pears and place a cartouche on top to poach.  Poach until soft and tender and remove from heat, cool and then place in the fridge.  Leave until cold.  

(A cartouche is a circular piece of greaseproof paper that overlaps the pan and has a plate placed on top to keep the paper in position.)

Rice pudding

440ml milk
220ml cream
80g pudding rice
80g condensed milk
50g unsalted butter, diced
1 vanilla pod, scraped

Wash the pudding rice under cold running water for 5 minutes to remove the starch.  In a pan bring to the boil the milk, cream and scraped vanilla pod and then lower the heat.  Add the rice and cook on a low heat for 12 – 15 minutes until the rice has become thick and soft.  Remove the mixture from the heat and then stir in the diced butter and condensed milk.  Pour into a deep glass baking tray and cover with greaseproof paper to prevent a skin from forming.  Chill until cold and then pour into stainless steel rings to set (5cm diameter), this will take approximately 2 hours.

Pear crisp

1 Williams pear

Preheat oven to a very low heat, gas mark 1/135°C/275°F

Thinly slice the pear on a Japanese mandolin.  Wrap cling film 3 times around the length and width of a baking tray.  Dust the tray with icing sugar and then place the sliced pear onto it, adding more icing sugar on top.  Place the tray in the oven and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour until crisp and dry.

To serve

Cut the pear in half lengthways.  Scoop out the pips with a teaspoon and place the first half on a plate, cutting a slice from the outside of the pear in order to get it to sit flat. Rest the second half on top.  Place the chilled rice pudding next to the pear halves and remove the steel ring.  Place the pear crisp in between the pear halves and the rice pudding.  For decoration, you may like to add vanilla sticks and edible flowers.