Poached pears
This is an easy dessert inspired by the French 'Peras al vino' - a simple, elegant dessert, made with fresh pears poached in wine. An ideal autumn or early winter treat - when pears are in season.
Ingredients
Method
- 4 ripe pears (firm)
- 750ml bottle white wine
- 1 ¾ cups water
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Peel the pears, but leave the stems. Cut the bottoms flat so that they will stand up by themselves. (Tip: Pears will brown if exposed to air too long, so if you're interrupted, be sure to submerge them in water with a squeeze of lemon juice until you can return and cook them).
- In a large pot combine the white wine, water, sugar and cinnamon stick. Place on medium heat on the stove top and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.
- Immediately place pears in the wine mixture, cover and allow to simmer on low heat for 1 hour.
- After cooking for an hour, carefully remove each pear from the pot and place in the bowl or plate on which you will serve. You may need to use tongs in one hand and a spoon in the other, since the pears will be soft. Set aside and allow to cool.
- Continue to cook the wine mixture uncovered on low heat for about 30 minutes so that the liquid is reduced.
- Remove sauce from heat and allow to cool. If you are making this dessert ahead of time, once the pears and sauce have cooled, place them in the refrigerator and remove a few minutes before serving.
- Spoon wine sauce over each pear and allow to pool around the pear. Garnish each pear with a sprig of mint and serve with vanilla ice cream.