I had always put off poaching pears in spiced wine. Maybe peeling them seemed daunting, or perhaps it seemed like a waste of wine....
In any event, I am glad I finally got around to it because I discovered it was easy and tasty.
Basically you peel several pears leaving the stem intact (however many will fit in one layer of your pot, so it depends on the size of the pears) . Add them to a pot in which you have already combined I bottle red wine, 1 cup sugar (I used half brown sugar), a couple of cloves, a couple of cinnamon sticks, a vanilla bean or some vanilla (Since they are expensive, I used an old bean that had been flavoring sugar already for a year and a half), and the zest of 1 lemon and one orange. You can also toss in a few prunes to impart and soak up flavours.
Simmer gently for about 15 or twenty minutes depending on ripeness and pear size. Reposition them gently a few times in case parts of them are sticking out. You can remove them to chill, or leave them overnight to soak and become more richly colored as I did. The recipe suggested mint leaves for the garnish, but I tried a leaf from my scented geranium (they're edible!), and the fragrance really complements the pear.
The recipe says to reduce the sauce after removing the pears, and add some jam for flavour and thickness, but at this point I am tempted to buy more pears and simmer another batch......
7 comments:
Beautiful; this reminds me to post my recipe for red wine poached apple galette; it's generally well received.
I just poached pears on Sunday! Didn't have wine so I used water, cinnamon stick, lemon peel and vanilla bean..yum..still wanted the ice cream...
That is one of my all-time favorite desserts!
Let's have a dinner party -- I'll bring my stuffed grape leaves. ;^)
C.L.H.,
I just experimented with grape leaves for the first time last Summer-----I discovered that the vine growing in my back yard was wild grape. I'll have to check your recipe! I made vegitarian ones with quinoa, currants and pine nuts, but I want to find a good meat version.
Simone,
we all still want the ice cream!
djinn,
Apple galette? Sounds intriguing. Am still waiting for the promised pastries...... 8D
I'm running right out and locating some pears. What type of wine did you use? I'm also planting some scented geranium; beautiful. I carefully nurtured some in Utah (lemon scented), and bet it would grow like gangbusters here in Portland.
I don't remember what variety of geranium it is-----something like citrus rose, or rosy lemon....it has a pleasing, light rosy, citrusy scent. It does not taste good raw, but the fragrance complements the pear I find.
I don't remember exactly what wine-----we asked at the wine store for an inexpensive red that would be suitable for mulling-----it was a type of granache (sp?) I'm pretty sure.
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