Poached Pears is a really classical dessert, but sometimes it's a bit disappointing because the syrup around the pears is a bit watery. What I like to do is add flavour and stickiness with a little bit of sugar, so there is nothing watery about this recip
Ingredients
- 1 kilo pears
- bottle of red wine
- 300 g sugar
- cinamon
- cardamon
- 1 vanilla pod
- peel of one orange
- juice of two oranges
Method
- Poached Pears is a really classical dessert, but sometimes it's a bit disappointing because the syrup around the pears is a bit watery. What I like to do is add flavour and stickiness with a little bit of sugar, so there is nothing watery about this recipe.
- Put on a whole bottle of red wine on to a gentle heat with 300g of sugar.
- Take some cinnamon and cardamom, crush them slightly so that the flavour comes out, and a vanilla pod.
- Split the vanilla pod down the middle and let it poach with the rest of the spices.
- Now bring that to the boil and put the pears in.
- Peel the pears very carefully and leave the little stalks on because they look much prettier when you are serving them.
- And it's nice to use small pears, because they soak up the flavours of the syrup a bit more easily.
- While the wine around the pears is heating up, add the carefully peeled rind of an orange, taking extra care not to cut into the pith.
- Then add the juice of the orange, squeezing out as much as you can and finally take a second orange, slice it evenly and add the slices to the pot as it comes up to a quiet simmer.
- Let that bubble away and reduce for about 40 minutes.
- If after about 30 minutes the pears are cooked but the syrup is still a little runny, then take them out and reduce the syrup even more until it's really lovely and sticky.
- And that's it: when you have the density you are looking for, serve the pears.
