With temperatures dropping in many of our daily lives here at Friends of Friends, we’ve been looking to combat the onslaught of ice, glacial wind, and snowfall with full bellies. To gird ourselves with recipes that pack a tasty punch and can give a new experience for our tastebuds, we’ve been reaching out to some of the creative foodies we admire.
Culinary anthropologist and chef Tanita de Ruijt has provided us with a recipe that ticks all of the boxes: it’s not only aesthetically divine and insta-feed worthy, but uses seasonal produce inventively as a way to buffer the body against cyclical changes.
Tanita’s recipe for salt-roasted pears with honey uses high-quality sea salt, which can, she says, “restore the health of certain organs, like the bladder and kidneys by regulating fluid balance.” It’s a combination of sweet and savory that can treat your insides well, and—according to Tanita—pairs wonderfully with chocolate sauce.
Salt-roasted pears with honey
Ingredients
- 750g coarse sea salt
- 2 firm, ripe pears
- Honey
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
- In a large bowl, stir in the sea salt with a dash of water by hand until the mixture looks and feels like sand
- Cover each pear with the salt mixture
- Bake the salt-covered pears for 40 minutes
- Remove the pears from the oven and allow to cool slightly
- Shatter the crust delicately with a knife, brush away salt and set aside until cooled to room temperature
- Drizzle pears with honey
Thank you to Tanita de Ruijt for her salt-roasted pears with honey recipe.
Tanita is a culinary anthropologist, chef, and writer. She is the founder of Jamu Kitchen in London and author of books ‘Super Roots‘ and ‘Tonic‘, both of which provide education and inspiration for natural remedies that can boost health. Tanita currently works at the Koya Soho & City bar in London, an establishment specializing in freshly made udon noodles.
Tanita’s dedication to food literacy, sustainability, and creating recipes that are culturally aware and crafted to support the body have drawn us to her work, and if you have an interest in reading more from Tanita, she has also recently written a piece on reimagining sustainability for Mold Magazine.
Text: Ellen McBride
Photography: Tanita de Ruijt
