Photo: panduh / Flickr

Oriental desserts normally focus on fruits, allowing for a refreshing end to a meal. This recipe for rice-stuffed pears requires flaked rice, skinned almonds, lotus seeds, red and green glace cherries, vegetable oil, sugar and four pears that have been peeled, cored and halved. The sauce requires sugar, water and cornflour. You can add a few drops of pink food colouring if you wish. Allow for a preparation time of a quarter of an hour and a cooking time of 40 minutes.

Ingredients for rice-stuffed pears

You will need the following ingredients for four servings: four pears (peeled, cored and halved), 225 grams of flaked rice, 25 grams of roughly chopped almonds (use skinned almonds), 100 grams of roughly chopped canned lotus seeds (drain them before use), 50 ml of vegetable oil and 2 tablespoons of sugar.

For a fun and colourful touch, add 6 red and green glace cherries that have been finely chopped. For a more sophisticated dessert, leave the cherries out.

Ingredients for the sauce

The sauce requires the following ingredients: 1 tablespoon of sugar, 100 ml of water and 25 grams of cornflour. If you’re using the cherries, you may want to add two drops of food colouring to the sauce.

Preparation

Place the flaked rice into a pot and cover the rice with water. Bring it to the boil and then allow it to steam for half an hour. Once the rice is cooked, add the almonds, lotus seeds, vegetable oil and cherries (if you’re using them). Mix the ingredients together.

To make the sauce, place the water and sugar into a pot and allow the sugar to dissolve. Add the cornflour (blend it with a little water and food colouring if you’re using it) and add the paste to the sugar water. Bring the sauce to a gentle boil while stirring. Stuff the pears and steam them for 15 minutes. Pour the sauce over the pears before serving.

Note: If you’d prefer to leave the pears whole then peel and core them before pushing the rice stuffing down into the core. Steam the pears for a few minutes longer.

Tags: desserts