Kitchen Staple: Poached Fruit
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006One of the advantages of living within walking distance to a good supermarket is that I can free up precious real estate in my fridge and pantry. Why would I want to pack the crisper bin with vegetables when I can just pick up a bag of salad greens for evening’s dinner on my way home? As a result, I have more flexibility to include a variety of kitchen staples.
One thing that you can always find in my fridge is jars of poached fruit. Every summer, I would buy baskets of sweet cherries and lightly poached them with a citrus syrup. All the cherries would get packed into large glass jars and top with loads of kirsch. Once I store them in the fridge, I have enough supply of cherries in kirsch to last me until the next summer. Come winter time, when there’s an abundance of pears available in the market, I would make poached pears. I love to poach the pears in either ruby port or sweet white wine such as Gerwurstraminer. With a healthy helping of aromatics (any combination of citrus zest, cinnamon, star anise, vanilla hull, cardamom) in the poaching liquid, I just leave the pears to simmer in the Le Creuset cast iron oval oven over very low heat until they are tender. I like to keep the pears in the poaching liquid and just let the flavour mature in the fridge.
These poached fruit are delicious on their own as a quick dessert but I love to include them in my savory dishes. For example, the poached pears make a lovely addition to a salad of baby spinach, toasted walnuts, and creamy blue cheese. The complexity of flavour from the wine and spices in the pears really elevates the salad from humdrum to extraordinary. Another great use of the poached fruit is as a condiment to meat dishes. After months of marinating in kirsch, I like to serve duck or pork dishes with the cherries and a reduction of some of the poaching liquid.
On the sweet side, black forest cake is an easy standby when I’m out of dessert ideas. More delicious, however, are clafoutis or frangipane tarts studded with poached fruit. One of my absolute favourite is poached peaches spiked with amaretto. Unfortunately, it doesn’t keep very well so it’s one of those special treats that I can only have when peaches are in season. I guess this is a blessing in disguise because it gives me more reason to look forward to the changing of the season every year!
Since my last 
Dessert Lady
My tour began at the Bloor/Yonge subway station which is in close proximity to a great number of chocolateries. From the station, walk north on Yonge and turn west on Cumberland will take you to my first stop, Dessert Lady. Dessert Lady is a relative newcomer to the Toronto pastry scene. It’s obvious that chef/owner Mandy Kan makes all her products inside this shop. On this chilly February afternoon, I was enveloped by the sweet smell of butter & sugar the second I opened the door. The selection of chocolate is not huge but it does have a few intriguing flavours.
Dinah’s Cupboard
What’s more interesting though, is that you can find cocoa powder from 
Simone Marie Belgian Chocolate
Simone Marie has been a fixture on Cumberland for many years. Their selection of chocolate are flown in from Belgium. It is here that I first learn about manon, Belgium-style chocolate with a butter cream centre. The first thing that I noticed was the large variety of white chocolate bonbon available.
Leonidas
Located in close proximity to Simone Marie is another Belgium chocolate boutique Leonidas. Their chocolates are also flown in weekly from Belgium. The cacao perle truffle has an exceptionally thick shell (about 4mm). This made for a rather awkward proportion between shell and ganache. I personally think the amount of ganache is too little to really highlight the smoothness of the soft ganache centre typical of truffles. The staff at Leonidas told me that the Manon café is the most popular chocolate in their Belgium store. However, since the Canadian market has a stronger preference for dark chocolate, it’s not as popular here. One bite into this chocolate and I understood its popularity. My personal preference also leans towards dark chocolate over white but the sweetness of the white chocolate perfectly complements the buttercream, hazelnut, and coffee combination. The balance of flavour is excellent.
Teuscher Chocolates
The chocolates at Teuscher are flown in weekly from Switzerland. Personally, other than a few local artisan chocolatiers, Teuscher ranks very high on my list of favourite chocolate available in Toronto. The majority of their chocolate selection are dark chocolate but they also have some very good flavour combination that highlight milk chocolate and white chocolate. The champagne truffle is Teuscher’s signature product and it’s not difficult to understand why. The dark chocolate ganache is laced with unmistakable flavour of champagne. The ganache is enrobed with a milk chocolate shell that balances the flavour beautifully. The dark chocolate truffle is in the shape of a little puck. The dark chocolate shell is of the perfect thickness to offer a slight snap when I bit into the truffle. Just because the ganache centre is not of the runny variety, it doesn’t mean the smoothness diminish. In fact, as the ganache slowly melted in my mouth, its fruity flavour unfolded deliciously. Teuscher is definitely one of my favourites.
Eitelbach Pastries
Nestled in the basement of Manulife Centre is Eitelbach Chocolate, a Toronto company. What’s special about Eitelbach is that they are one of the few places in Canada that makes 
Stubbe Chocolate
With stores in Toronto and Ottawa, Stubbe is a German-style Konditorei that has been around since 1845. The first thing that greeted the eye when I entered the store was the various molded chocolate on display. It’s very unpretentious but personally I think it took the focus away from the individual chocolate bonbons located further back in the store. Stubbe has a large selection of truffles with some very interesting flavour not found in other chocolateries (such as fleur de biere, gerwurstraminer, kir royale). The feet on the truffles are not particularly small but I did notice that some of the shell has holes punched through by the ganache. This is a problem that I had when I made my own truffles. After I enrobed the ganache with chocolate, the ganache expanded to punch a hole in through the shell. The shell of the bittersweet truffle has noticeably uneven thickness. The taste and texture are not particularly memorable but there’s nothing wrong with it really. However, in my head-to-head comparison taste test, it doesn’t quite match up to other more excellent truffles.
js bonbons
Although this branch doesn’t serve js bonbons’ famous hot chocolate, it is where chocolatier Jen Stone’s chocolate school is located. I must say that js bonbons produces the most beautifully shaped truffles in Toronto. Each piece is a perfectly round globe with tiny "feet". Since they do not carry any simple dark chocolate truffle, I used their tarragon & black pepper truffle as the control instead. Both the shell-to-ganache proportion and texture are among the best I’ve tasted in this trip. The ganache filling is not runny yet it is soft enough to make for a very sexy textural contrast with the tempered shell. The spicy bite from the tarragon and black pepper infused ganache overshadowed the flavour of the chocolate itself so I can’t really comment on that aspect. However, as a flavoured truffle, it is a very delicious indeed. JS bonbons is one of my favourite local artisan chocolatiers for sure. 
Frangipane Patisserie
Chocolate is not Frangipane’s specialty but since it’s so close to js bonbons, it is worth a visit even for a nice little break. I like their more rustic desserts such as the fruit frangipane tart or parisien flan. They have a very small selection of house-made chocolate bonbons which include some very intriguing flavours and stylish appearance.
Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut
The truffles at Bernard Callebaut have a rather rustic appearance not typically associated with high-end chocolate. The Celeste truffle is a little oval covered with chocolate shavings. Because the truffles are smaller than the typical ones, I found the portion of ganache to be too little. The flavour of the chocolate is deep and warm. It’s not too complicated yet quite satisfying. However, as far as truffles are concerned, I don’t think this is where Bernard Callebaut excels. 
Ingredients