While I ate my porridge yesterday it suddenly occurred to me to have something sweet. I was craving iced tea but my kitchen was bear all but pears (
like my rhyming skills?). So I figured I’d make something from what I had and just prepare some Baesuk. The last time I had this dessert was at my friend Catherine’s house like 1 year ago. You see, her mom travels around the world for work and brings back some really yummy recipes. I wasn’t sure how to make it but I knew I had the most essential ingredients at hand. Easy as that in all of 40 minutes I had a really yummy dessert/drink to complement my porridge. I, personally, had to substitute some of the ingredients but here’s what you’ll need to do.
Ingredients:
- 2 Asian pears
- 20-30 peppercorns
- 2 tbsp. of sugar
- 4 cups water
- a small handful of pine nuts
Directions:
- Peel and core the pear. Make sure to leave no skin or can make the end result a bit bitter.
- Cut them into quarters, rounding off the edges.
- Stick in 2-3 peppercorns on the outer side running along the center. Be sure to place them far enough apart so that they don’t fall out.
- Pour your 4 cups of water, 2 tbsp.’s of sugar and the pear sections into a sauce pan. Bring this to a boil. *Note: You want to dissolve the sugar into the water before putting in the pears.
- Reduce the heat to low and cook for another 5-8 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let the boiling water (which should now be a bit syrupy) cook the pear a bit more before transferring the liquid and pear sections into a bowl or jar.
- Place the container in the refrigerator to cool.
- Serve in a small bowl with 2-3 pears. Garnish with a sprinkle of pine nuts.
You can have this yummy dessert with a lot of different foods. I prefer to accompany it with spicy foods as it works really well at cooling. Also, you can go all out and make this for special occasions. Or get creative and make different shapes. You could even use (or not use) the pine nuts and peppercorn in artistic ways. 
잘, 머겠숩니다! (Bon Appetite!)
Korean Delights 