Sunday sweet treat: Rooibos-poached pears with Saffron ice cream

News24

25-05-2025

Rooibos tea is one of those proudly South African ingredients that is insanely versatile outside of the teapot. These rooibos-poached pears impart a sense of calm in the world that can only be described as you eat them. I adore the hot-cold combination of the pears and ice cream for that hot and cold sparkle. But, with or without ice cream, the pears will delight – the choice is yours.
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Ingredients
Saffron ice cream
2 cups cream
1 cup full-cream milk
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp ground saffron
A pinch of salt
6 large egg yolks
1 squeeze vanilla paste
Rooibos-poached pears
3 cups water
4 rooibos tea bags
½ cup sugar
1 vanilla pod, halved and seeds scraped loose
4 firm pears, peeled but with the stalks in
Method
1. To prepare the ice cream, heat the cream, milk, sugar, saffron and salt in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir continuously. Once the mixture is scalding but not boiling and the sugar has dissolved, whisk the egg yolks in a bowl into a thick, aerated mass.
2. Take the milk mixture off the heat, then add about ½ cup of it to the whisked egg yolks and whisk together. Pour the egg yolk and dairy mixture back into the saucepan and heat on low until the mixture thickens. You will know it's done when it can coat the back of a spoon and a line remains when you drag a finger across the back of the spoon. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Before churning, be sure to cool the mixture for at least 4 hours or overnight. Churn according to the instructions of your ice-cream machine.
4. For the pears, add the water, tea bags, sugar, and vanilla seeds and pod to a deep pot. Heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the pears and poach for ±30 minutes, until they are soft but not disintegrating. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pears from the poaching liquid and set them aside.
5. Place the poaching liquid back over the heat and allow to reduce by half. The syrup will be pale and flavourful.
6. To serve, add a pear to each serving bowl with a scoop of ice cream and drizzle with the syrup.
This recipe is an extract from Kamini Pather's debut cookbook, A ll Dhal'd Up! Every day, Indian-ish, Good-Mood Food. You probably know Kamini as the winner of MasterChef South Africa's second season and a food-loving TV personality who's taken the culinary world by storm, producing hit food-travel series like Girl Eat World. Her cooking is all about bold Indian-inspired dishes with an exciting global twist. All Dhal'd Up is her first full-length cookbook and her unapologetic love letter to flavour, where she serves up her signature style in every recipe.