Everlasting Fragrance, Hot Chocolate and Impotence

The vanilla story continues...
There are some botanicals that hold their fragrance for years but was surprised to discover that properly stored vanilla pods can retain their flavour and fragrance for fifty years and like red wine, improve with age. Store in an airtight container away from heat and light in a cool place and you will always have pods on hand.

Or you can use them.

Tinctures are one way to capture active principles of plants and that's what we do when we make vanilla essence. The shaking replaces the usual sucussing of the tincture.

Here's two recipes - one with and one without alcohol.


Vanilla Essence

Vanilla pods
Brandy, vodka or spirit of choice

Chop your pods into 1cm lengths and place in a screw top jar.
Cover with brandy or vodka.
Leave to steep at least a month, longer if you can wait that long, shaking daily.
The liquid should be dark brown and fragrant
Strain through a coffee filter if you wish a clear liquid or leave the seeds as they are.

Alcohol Free Vanilla Essence

Vanilla pods
Vegetable glycerine
Distilled water (optional)

The method is the same as above, simply cover the pods with glycerin or 50/50 blend of  glycerin and water and use as you would any other vanilla essence. at suitable for vegetarians unless it is labelled as vegetable glycerin.

You can also split and scrape out the seeds either before or after infusing them and add to the essence.
Scraped pods can be added to sweet dishes or preserves and removed before serving, they also contain lots of flavour. Try adding to hot milk used for making chocolate for an Aztec experience!

Vanilla essence made with alcohol can be used in essential oils perfumes as it blends well with all woody, resinous and oriental scents.

It has no known pharmaceutical use apart from as a flavouring for medicines. A rumor started in the 17th century that it could cure impotence probably came about as it it known to be difficult to fertilise!

Perfect winter pears

Half the people I invited to dinner this week were recovering from the latest nasty recurring cold that has been around this winter. The other half were worried about catching it! Chicken soup has always been my ultimate comfort food for illness and as it made sense to feed everyone copious amounts of garlic and chilli, I made a huge pot of chicken laksa with extra hot crunchy blachan on the side.

I was really stuck about what to serve for dessert. Whatever I made had to be quick to prepare and no fuss. Pears have been a good buy lately and I bought a couple of kilos of not quite ripe Packhams. I still had no idea of what to cook.  An e mail has been circulating on the health benefits of cinnamon and honey and I was sure the pantry would bring further inspiration.

Here's what I came up with:

Poached Pears in Ginger Wine

8 Pears, peeled but with stalks and cores left intact
1 C clear apple juice
1/2  C green ginger wine
3 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla pod split lengthwise
2 Tbsp honey

Cut a slice from the base of each pear so it sits flat.

Place in a slow cooker or a deep baking dish.

Place cinnamon, juice and wine into the dish, pouring the liquids over the pears.

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add seeds and pod to the dish.

Drizzle the honey over the pears.

Cover and cook on high for six hours in the slow cooker or covered in foil for an hour in 180˚C oven.

Baste occasionally with the juices.

The cinnamon will turn the juice a lovely pink.                                               

Serve pears with some of the syrup, which can be reduced to thicken if you wish, with crème fraiché, yoghurt or custard.  

Perhaps the vanilla pod was an unusual addition but as Amita had just arrived back with the softest most luscious smelling vanilla pods from Indonesia, how could I not use them? We have more than we need, so we have a limited amount for sale. If you would like some, click here.