New Foodie Website

Check out Cookstr, the new foodie website profiled by the NYTimes a few weeks ago. It's got lots of "names," such as Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Alice Waters, Mollie Katzen, just to name a few, with thousands of their recipes and lots of pretty pictures. I haven't spent too much time with the interface but the content looks intriguing.

I'll probably be using their poached pears in chocolate sauce by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman (though I should note that when I searched "pears helene," which also has chocolate, it didn't appear--though I know that it is there--because I didn't use accent marks. They need to fix that.)

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Poached Pears in Chocolate Sauce

Yield: 4 servings
Cooking Time: 20 minutes, plus cooling time
Ingredients
4 pears (about 6 ounces each), preferably Anjou
3¼ cups sugar
2 vanilla beans
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, such as Valrhona or Hershey’s
½ cup heavy cream

Directions
Peel and core the pears. Combine 2½ cups of the sugar and 5 cups water in a saucepan large enough to hold the pears. Split the vanilla beans the long way and scrape out the seeds; add both seeds and pods to the water. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
Add the pears and adjust the heat so that the mixture bubbles, but not too vigorously. Cook for 8 minutes, or until a thin-bladed knife inserted into the pears meets with little resistance. Let the pears cool in the liquid for 30 to 60 minutes (do not refrigerate).
Meanwhile, combine 1 cup water with the remaining ¾ cup sugar in a small saucepan; bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cocoa, along with the cream. Return to very low heat and cook, stirring, just until thickened slightly. (This can be made several hours in advance; keep at room temperature, then rewarm gently.)
Serve the pears with the warm chocolate sauce spooned over them.
The pears should be large and just about perfectly ripe before cooking. To judge ripeness, gently squeeze their "shoulders," which should yield to your touch.
The easiest way to core a pear is with a small melon baller, digging up from the bottom. An ordinary teaspoon works almost as well.

Notes
If you are not going to cook the pears right away, once they are peeled and cored, drop them into a bowl of cold water mixed with the juice of a lemon to keep them from turning brown.© 2000 Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman
cookstr.com