Adventures in Produce

 

There are many fruits that I haven’t tried, mainly because I stick to apples and watermelon. I’ve never tried a mango, peach, pear, and many others, but today I wanted to focus on the pear. It looked like an apple with a more oval shape to it. However, it was a little heavier than the apple, even though the sizes looked the same. I honestly didn’t know much about this fruit, but I wanted to give it a try. I wanted to try it to see if the fruit tasted good by itself, and I wanted to try out the grilled cheese bacon pear and jam sandwich. The recipe immediately grabbed my attention. When do you EVER see a fruit in a grilled cheese sandwich? I sure haven’t seen it done before.

I looked a little more into what a pear is and if it is even beneficial to us. I want to make sure this fruit is actually really good for me. Pears, to my surprise, have higher concentrations of pectin than apples. I need to eat more pairs that apples now! Pectins are water soluble fibers that help lower the LDL blood cholesterol by preventing the absorption of dietary cholesterol. They are also a really good source of Vitamin B2,C,E, copper and potassium. Growing up in a semi healthy household, my mother would always tell me to eat the skins of my fruits because they were healthier. I didn’t believe her because the skin was the nastiest part. As I looked into the pair, the skin is actually way healthier to ingest than the inside. The skin contains antioxidants and anti-cancer nutrients which are not found in many other fruits. So far the pear is a golden fruit in my eyes.

The pear was also kind of hard to cut, just like an apple. It was hard throughout and had a couple seeds towards the center. Now for the taste test! I decided to eat it just how it is and by a recipe I found on another website. I will include the recipe in a link at the end of the blog. When eating the pear by itself I simply cut it into slices and began eating. I did not enjoy the skin too much because it seemed a little tougher to chew than an apple. The inside part was actually delicious. It was sweet, but kind of had a tang kick to it. It was pretty good because it wasn’t hard to chew at all. What struck me as odd was the fact that the inside part of the pear was kind of grainy. It was like small pieces of sand in each bite. I do not know if it was because the ones I got were not ripe yet, but it was definitely odd. 

Moving onto the grilled cheese pear and bacon sandwich, this took some time to prepare. Not only did it take me a second to cut the slippery pear, but I had to prepare the bacon and cheese sandwich. I was EXTREMELY skeptical about this sandwich because fruit in a cheese sandwich was not normal to me. As I began to cook and combine the sandwich, it started to look pretty good. The smell of the bacon and cheese was amazing and the scent from the pear added a deliciously sweat vibe. I was starting to get excited for this sandwich. After I finished the sandwich I placed some jam/jelly inside to finish it off. I took my first bite and was blown away. It was amazing. I thought it was the best sandwich I’ve had in a  long time. The salty bacon and sweet pear complimented each other nicely. Not to mention a grilled cheese always taste good. This recipe was a keeper. If you like pears and grilled cheese sandwiches, give this one a try.

I’m all for pears now. I’m glad I bought 5 of them and not just one. I will definitely be making more pear and bacon grilled cheese sandwiches. Although, I did not expect the fruit to be grainy, I did enjoy the overall taste. It was sweet and that’s always a plus. The sandwich recipe was just icing on the cake.

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pear-bacon-grilled-cheese