Rosemary Pear Compote

My week has been spent testing recipes for the holiday issue of Mutineer Magazine, which incidentally is also the debut of my new food column. Yay! Anyway, I have been making gougeres like they are going out of style and one batch happened to include gouda cheese. The flavor  was really wonderful, and I knew I wanted to do something with them.

I love the combination of gouda cheese and pears, so I decided to make a little compote. I recently found a locally made pear cider, that is quite delicious on it’s own,  but as I sipped it, I thought it had a lot of potential for culinary usage. So I decided to reduce it and use it as a base for my compote. The cider adds enough acidity, so no lemon juice or anything else is necessary. The pears are lovely and sweet, but mild so I added in a little sea salt to wake them up. The rosemary is just the icing on the cake to make it all a bit more interesting. As for the gougeres, I’m saving that recipe for the magazine. But you can use any gougeres recipe you like simply replacing the cheese with gouda. Enjoy!

Pear Compote

2 cups Pear Cider, flat and at room temp

4 Bartlett Pears, diced

2 TBS Pure Cane Sugar

1/8 tsp Sea Salt

1/2 tsp Fresh Rosemary, minced

In a saucepan reduce the cider by 3/4. Add in the pears, sugar, and salt then reduce almost completely, the pears will be quite sticky. Stir in the rosemary, check for seasoning, cool slightly and serve.