Pear Preserve

Pear preserve: Old fashioned preserved pears are so good topped over ice creams, puddings, or even on hot crispy buttered toast.

We lived in a beautiful hill station named Coorg before we moved into this city. Unlike city, hills are wonderful place if you love fruits and veggies....and the cold weather!! Seasonal fresh fruits were a delight, pear is something which we used to get in abundance there.

Pear is known as "sabarjelly" here in Kerala, and people just peel, slice and consume.....nothing much is done with it....but in the hills, pear is preserved for a year and to be used as toppings. I used to make bottles of this and store; but after moving into the city, I never got a chance to preserve fruits and store; mainly because you do not get it in bulk or it might be expensive. A few days back Homey got some pear from the fruit market....and my son suddenly remembered the preserved ones I used to make and he needed one....and was adamant!! So I took just 750 gms of pear and made it for him...and thought of sharing this here.

My Notes: Sugar syrup should come to one string consistency...it it goes more than 2 string it will become very thick, when cooled down.
You can quarter or cube it (like I did) its just a matter of personal preference.
You can add a bit of spices for that extra zing...spices like cinnamon, cloves etc.

Author: Nisa Homey.
Ingredients: 
Pear: 750 gms.
Sugar: 300 gms.
Lime juice: Juice of half lime.

Method:
The pears we got from the market here, wash and clean them with water.

Peel the skin, slice into half and remove the seeds...you can preserve this quartered but I like cubed!!

Cube them.

Put them into a bowl

Add sugar into it and mix well....leave it for a couple of hours...so that the juice will come out of the fruit.

See the juice has come out and sugar has dissolved.

Transfer all this to pan or pot for cooking it, add the lime juice...I used my kadai or chenachatti. Switch on the fire.

Once it starts boiling, simmer the fire and once the syrup starts to become little thick..

Check for one string consistency...one thread/string consistency is when a single thread is formed and does not break when your forefinger and your thumb are pulled apart gently. Be careful, the sugar syrup will be hot...so just take it in a spoon and cool slightly before doing this.

I allowed it stay on low flame for a few more minutes and when done....it will look a bit brownish and somewhat syrupy.

Bottle it into a clean, sun dried jar....this will keep for some months....and best to make in large quantities...

Top it over cake, ice creams.....toasts etc.