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Prime pear season in Japan is, as far as I can tell, ending, because I’ve seen a lot of pears on sale recently. While I appreciate the difference that really fresh ingredients can make to food, I also appreciate buying able to buy things that I otherwise couldn’t justify the price of, so I’ve bought several. Some are destined for tarts or other baked goods, but I used one in Ginger Pear Tea, which I am very fond of. The most important things here, I think, are to not overdo the fresh ginger (’cause man, this stuff is strong), and to not over steep the black tea. If you do it right, you end up with a nice, mellow drink with a tiny little bite. So I started off with a delicious pear.

I peeled and cut up my pear into pieces and then stuck it in my food processor to puree it.

I combined this with a tiny bit of ginger in a pot and let it simmer. After about 20 minutes, I added my tea leaves (I used some Black Yunnan, but another kind would be fine) and let it steep for five minutes. I immediately strained the whole mixture into two cups- one mug and one glass cup filled with ice. It is quite delicious both warm and cold. I did add a tiny bit of sugar to the cold tea, because I’m from the South and we drink sweet iced tea, OK? (If I were really Southern, this would have been a recipe for Ginger Pear Sugar Syrup).

That left me to make almond cookies. Since it is close to Halloween and since they looked delicious, I decided to make these cookies from King Arthur Flour’s website. I have no idea where to get almond flour in Japan, so I improvised by grinding up almonds in my food processor.

Then I mixed everything up as directed in the recipe and tried to roll it into bone shapes, with mixed success:

Now, the recipe says to refrigerate overnight uncovered, which I assume reduces the moisture content of the cookies and changes the way the bake (though, not being the expert in food science I would like to be, I don’t know). However, since I didn’t read the directions carefully the day before, I didn’t know this. (ALWAYS read your recipes ahead of time! I feel extremely foolish every time I do something like this). Being impatient and hungry, I decided to take my chances and go ahead and cook them. This is what they looked like before-not great bone twisting, but okay, I thought-

-and after-

So…whether it was the substitution of ground almonds over almond flour, or the lack of refrigeration I don’t know, but for whatever reason, they did not end up as beautiful little twists of deliciousness. However, they were twists of deliciousness, so maybe only a half-loss to the Culinary Gods of Disaster and Sadness? They were awesome and chewy and went well with the tea, which ended up with no tapioca pearls in it, by the way, because not every beverage absolutely needs tapioca pearls.

Just for the record though, it would make sweet boba too.

Ginger Pear Tea

Ingredients
1 pear (I use big Asian pears, but you could use another variety)
1 tsp fresh ginger
3 tbsp. black loose leaf tea
4 cups of water*
Sugar or Honey to taste

Directions
1) Peel, seed, and puree the pear. 
2)Add pureed pear, ginger and water to a pot and simmer for twenty minutes.
3)Add black tea. Simmer for another 5 minutes. 
4)Strain and add sweetener as desired. Drink hot or chill. 

*When it comes to making tea, I am particularly careful about my water quality. Some things I will compromise on and use tap water, particularly since buying bottled water means carrying it back from a nearby grocery store since I have no car. However, fresh tea is not one of those things. Bad-tasting water can completely wreck an otherwise good cup of tea. (Though it is worth noting that strong tea can also salvage particularly bad water. Hopefully that’s not necessary for you folks out there though). My tap water is not unusually bad, but it also has a distinct taste that I’m not entirely fond of.

CGODS: .5

Me: 2.5

Next week: Something that goes with salted caramel tart. Maybe.