Devilled Pears with Pistachio Cream - Pear Week #3

On my quest searching for information on the pistachio cream used in Montebello, I came across this beautiful picture of a pear, filled with cream. AMAZING!!!

I had extra pistachio cream from my Montebello Torte, and I happened to have red anjou pears in my fridge. That is the best coincidence ever because I rarely rarely buy anjou pears. Actually I rarely buy non Asian pears and HATE Packham pears, the most common ones available here. The only time I ate the most pears, non Asian ones to be exact was when I was pregs with Lydia. I became a fruitarian for 7 weeks. The mouth won't accept anything besides fruit. I won't want to bite, nor want to chew or swallow anything else but fruit. I suffered from bad constipation due to hormonal changes and it's my body's way of helping me by turning fruitarian. But still the constipation was still bad. Disgusted? Don't be. It's common during pregnancies and I'm not the only one. I didn't choose to constipate nor did I choose to turn fruitarian, my body.. it's my body.

Why did I eat so much pears? Well, basically I had a lot lot of fruit. One dinner will consist of 5 servings of fruits, at least. If not, how can I be full? One day I eat a lot lot of fruits. And my doctor told me papaya, watermelon, pineapple and grapes are No-No for the first trimester. And apples and pears are the most filling ones.. besides banana of course and I'm not supposed to eat so much durian. And it was just around this time..... when pears and apples of all sorts are abundant. My husband wasn't around and I went through my first 6 months of pregnancy, pretty much alone. I dropped 7 kg during this 7 weeks. When I was 14 weeks, suddenly I wanted to eat Sweet Sour Pork rice for dinner, and from then onwards, my appetite went back almost normal. Yeah, almost because I still can't take roasted pork and brown rice, and weirdly KFC.

And few weeks back, I was reminded of Devilled eggs, saw on Feats of Feasts. So, let's call these pears, devilled pears... they do look like eggs, right? hahaha!

This dessert is to be eaten with fork and knives..... not a spoon.

Devilled Pears with Pistachio Cream

Recipe created by: Wendyywy
Inspired by: Rawmazing

6-8 Red Anjou Pears
1 Tbsp lemon juice
4 mint leaves, finely snipped.
Pistachio Cream
Mint leaves for garnish
Nut nibs for sprinkling (any nut)

1. Mix lemon juice with mint leaves.
2. Half pears and remove the core with a melon baller.
3. Thinly apply the minted lemon juice to the cut surface to prevent the pears from browning.
4. Fill the "crater" with pistachio cream and garnish with mint and nut nibs

Pistachio Cream
2 egg yolks
100gm whipping cream
50gm pistachio (lightly toasted until fragrant)
25gm sugar
10gm cornstarch
1 drop green food colouring

200gm whipping cream
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp gelatin
1 Tbsp water

1. Mill pistachio with sugar and cornstarch to get a finer texture.
2. Prepare pistachio pastry cream. Mix yolks with cream, and on low heat until it turns slightly warm, put in powdered pistachios and cook until it begins to thickens.(if using heavy based pot, stop when it starts to thicken. If regular stainless steel pots, cook until it thickens. When you stir, the whisk leaves trails that you can see the base of the pot). Put into a bowl, let it cool down, cover with cling wrap and chill.
3. Put ceramic/glass mixing bowl into freezer. (If using stainless steel, skip this and place bowl in a ice water bath only.
4. Place water in a small heat proof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over and let it sit for 1 minute. Melt it either over hot water bath or in the microwave. Let the mixture cool down, it won’t take long.
5. Remove mixing bowl from freezer and put in whipping cream. Beat until streaks start to show and put in sugar and beat until soft peaks. Put in gelatin mixture and beat until stiff.
6. Remove cold pistachio pastry cream from fridge.
7. Put a few Tbsp of the whipped cream into the pastry cream, fold to lighten it. Repeat with a few more Tbsp of whipped cream.
8. Pour the pastry cream into the whipped cream and fold until incorporated.
9. Use the pistachio cream immediately or keep chilled before filling