Warm Pears with a Brandy Cream

When Foodies Meet...

My husband’s tennis buddy Joe is an ex-chef. He’s in the health-care field now, but he’s still a great cook. Once a chef, always a chef.

I’m a food writer.

So, of course, we had to meet up for dinner.

When foodies meet for dinner there’s always an air of quality. We are picky about the places we choose to eat and if we are going to be eating out, we expect the restaurant to perform as we see fit. We want a good atmosphere. The music better not be too loud or too soft. The lighting better be soft and show off our best features, as well as light the table. We want the service to be attentive without being smothering. And of course, we want the food to be GREAT.

Viand was Joe’s choice for our dining experience. I had read about Viand but none of us had ever been there before. Joe knew about Viand from a person who knew the chef well. So we sort of had an inside line; a teeny one.

http://www.viandchicago.com/menu.php

I’m including a link to the restaurant here, just so you can get a taste of what was in store for our evening.

I had never met Joe’s wife Tess. Tess is a delight. Maybe she’s a bit shy at first, but when you get her going she’s a bundle of conversation energy.

Tess and I sort of bonded over a Zola Diet discussion. Not every day does someone design a new diet. Most of us have at least a few pounds we want to lose and Tess wanted to know how the diet worked, what made it unique and all of that. I found myself running off at the mouth because she kept asking questions. I try to listen more than I talk when I meet someone new. This time I think I pretty much failed. I talked a lot. But we laughed a lot too.

The food was in fact, GREAT. Joe had made a great choice. One of the things about The Zola Diet is I made sure that when you are on it you can still dine out. I write about food every week. I’m not going to quit eating just because I’m on a diet, and I can’t quit going out either. Even when on the strictest part of the diet you can always find something on the menu you can eat. Easiest thing is to order a steak and green beans. Or asparagus. You can even have shrimp cocktail or a tomato salad for starters. How many major-league diets include filet mignon? I dare say, few. Most diets cut out all the fun stuff.

On this night I ordered lamb chops. They came off the grill with just the right amount of char. They were medium rare, warm and just the right pink color when I cut into them. They were over-the-top-flavorful. Viand gets meat from one of the best purveyors of such things in town.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. Viand did an excellent job. And Joe picked up the check. Story is Joe won some money in the lottery and he decided to treat us. Gotta love Joe for that.

I like our new friends. Great cooks who pick great venues for food. I hope this new friendship grows.

There are four phases to The Zola Diet. In Phase 3 you get to add back in things like cream sauces. This is one of the most decadent desserts I ever designed and you can eat it on The Zola Diet during the ZReboot phase when you are maintaining your weight; not losing it.

Warm Pears with a Brandy Cream
Number of Servings: 4

Ingredients:

4 fresh, ripe pears

1 Tbl butter

1 Tsp Vanilla

Juice from half of a small lemon

2 packets of stevia (this is a natural sugar substitute to cut the carbohydrates in this recipe)

2 oz of brandy (or you can use one tsp of brandy flavoring if you don’t cook with alcohol)

1 cup of whipping cream

2 tsp of tiny chocolate chips

Directions

Peel pears and cut into wedges. In a saute pan, melt the butter and add the pears. Add the lemon juice and toss the pears on medium high heat for 3 minutes. Add the stevia and vanilla. Turn heat to medium and cook until pears are tender but not falling apart. Remove the pears and keep them warm in the oven in a heat proof container. Add brandy and cream to the juices in the pear saute pan. Cook on medium high just to get the cream bubbling lightly. Stir often and watch for the cream to begin to thicken. That’s when you know it’s ready to serve. Serve pears with the brandy cream and sprinkle on just a few tiny chocolate chips. The chips will soften into a dreamy mass in the hot cream.

This is not a large dessert but it’s so decadent that you don’t need a large portion. Each person gets one full pear and a spoonful or two of the sauce.

If I wanted to make this for a larger party I’d put the pears, melted butter, lemon juice and stevia with the pears in a 9 X 13 pan and bake them. 30 minutes should do it at 350. Poke a pear or two to make sure they are soft. Cooking time will depend on how ripe the pears were when you started. You could even do this a day ahead and just keep it in the refrigerator and re-heat during the main course. Then take the liquid out from around the pears and put it in a large sauté pan and continue to recipe as it’s written. You’ll need to make the cream sauce the same way to get it to thicken properly. Cooking time will be a bit longer because of the volume. It can be done though this way for 12 people I’d say.

Cheers
Enjoy,
Zola

Send email to Zola at dinnerwithzola@hotmail.com.