Recipe of the week: poached pears with buckwheat crumble

Serves 4

• 4 ripe pears, peeled, cored and halved
• 200ml honey or maple syrup
• 1 orange, juiced and 3-4 strips of peel removed
• 1 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• A few slices of fresh ginger
• Oat créme fraîche, to serve

For the buckwheat crumble

• 40g non-dairy butter or coconut oil
• 80g buckwheat flour or cooked leftover buckwheat groats
• 25g gluten-free oats
• 25g any nuts or seeds, chopped
• 25g muscovado sugar

Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Place the pear halves in a lidded pan wide enough to lay them all next to each other, flat side down. Pour over the honey or maple syrup and the orange juice. Add the star anise, cinnamon stick, ginger slices and orange peel strips. Pour over a little water if the pear halves are not fully submerged.

Cover with the lid and set over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Turn the heat off but leave the lid on the pan to allow the pear halves to gently poach in the residual heat.

To make the buckwheat crumble, rub the butter or oil into the flour (or rub into whole leftover buckwheat groats for more of a crumb). Add the oats, nuts or seeds and the sugar, and mix together. Spread the mixture out onto a baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes until just turning golden.

Sprinkle a few tablespoons of the crumble beside a couple of poached pear halves and add a generous dollop of oat créme fraîche to serve.

Tips

• If you want a more syrupy poaching liquor, remove the pears before reducing the spiced liquor further, boiling for another 5-8 minutes until it has a thicker consistency.
• The pear peels can be reserved and chopped into muesli, added to a tagine or sweet stew, or eaten as a snack.