Poires à la Régence

Poires à la Régence (fried, filled poached pears) teach a severe little truth: the cold structure must be settled before hot fat ever sees it. The pears are poached whole in vanilla syrup, cooled in that syrup, then opened and rebuilt around kirsched rice, frangipane, and candied-fruit salpicon. Cut them warm and they slump; cool them completely and the halves hold their shape as neatly as two cupped hands.

The classical formula assumed a pastry station with rice, frangipane, poaching syrup, apricot sauce, and frying fat already waiting. At home, a narrow saucepan replaces the syrup bath, a heavy pot and thermometer replace the fryer, and good apricot preserve gives the small quantity of sauce its honest fruit foundation. The brigade's separate production schedule is scaffolding and can go. The quarter-weight of frangipane, the Kirsch, the fine crumb coat, the candied angelica stem, and the last-minute frying are the dish itself, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Cool the pears completely in their syrup before you cut them. If time presses, set the saucepan in an ice-water bath, but don't lift the pears from the syrup while they're warm. That chill is the step that decides the dish.