CARAMELIZED PEAR AND FETA SALAD

Pears are surprisingly hard to come by in Chennai. Sure, you find the locally grown green ones—the ‘hill station’ pears—but those still run a certain seasonal cycle and you see them around for maybe one or two months of the year. These local varieties are usually not very flavourful however, and the texture is often too firm to sink your teeth into. Forget the whole juice-dripping-down-your-arm appeal, you’ll more likely end up chipping your tooth if you bit into one of these. Great to cook with though (the firmer the pear, the better it is for cooking) so by all means use them if they’re available to you.

Underripe pears are ideal in this recipe, necessary even, because cooking will soften them up and won’t cause them to fall apart; they’ll still hold their shape. Perfectly ripe pears will just turn to mush.

Here’s how you do it: toss the pear wedges in maple syrup, lots of freshly ground black pepper and salt. Lay them out in a large wide pan, bump up the heat, and caramelize them on both sides. You want them to colour on the outside without actually cooking them all the way through (hence the high heat). The sugars in the maple syrup and pears will catch and burn a bit in the pan, but that’s a good thing. We want that. That’ll form a part of the dressing.

Once the pears are caramelized and golden on both sides, transfer to a bowl. A splosh of vinegar and shallots go in and we scrape up all those sticky bits from the bottom of the pan. This is your near-instant dressing. To serve, add the caramelized pears, crumbled feta, roughly torn lettuce, and walnuts to a large bowl. Pour over the dressing, give it a good toss-up with your hands, and fork away! You make this salad once and you’ll find yourself reaching for those pears every time you see them at the store. This, I guarantee you.