I somehow got it in my head that I must make poached pears in red wine for dessert for the traditional Sunday lunch I had planned for Mother’s Day.
I went all out and made roast lamb with garlic and fresh rosemary (incidentally, my first ever attempt at a lamb roast), sweet cinnamon butternut, roast potatoes, rice, and broccoli with cheese sauce. Apparently the roast was delicious, the carnivores were well-pleased with it! The poached pears were, however, the pièce de résistance!
Making poached pears is surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. I read a few recipes online, but they either had too many ingredients, looked too fussy to make or they used ingredients that I’m not overly fond of. I decided that less is more and went with my own take on the general gist of recipes I read, as I often do.
Pears Poached in Red Wine
Ingredients
6 Pears (firm, not ripe)
2 Sticks cinnamon or cassis
3 Cardamom pods
1 Star anise
600ml Red wine
600ml Water
1.5 Cups brown sugar
1 Tsp vanilla essence
Method
- Bring the wine and water to a boil in a medium pot.
- Add the sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla and star anise.
- Stir lightly to dissolve the sugar.
- Peel the pears with a vegetable peeler and add to the pot.
- Reduce heat and simmer for 25 – 30 minutes.
- Cook until the pears are soft and you can stick a toothpick through.
- Remove pears and wine from heat, transfer to a glass dish and store in the fridge overnight once cooled (plastic may stain).
- Gently turn pears over in the syrup the following morning to stain the side that was exposed overnight.
- To make a syrup for serving, take a cup of the sweet wine liquid and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10min to reduce it by half.
- Remove the syrup from the heat and set aside for serving.
- Serve with double cream greek yoghurt and a drizzle of the syrup.
Chef’s notes
- You can serve with marscapone or whipped cream instead of yoghurt.
- Make pears the day before you intend eating them, because they need to steep in the mulled sweet wine over night to draw good colour.
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