this post contains affiliate linksFruit related pun incoming, but at the ripe old age of fifty seven I realised I’d never poached a pear - not one single fruit in fact. Not because I’m averse to the idea but because I’d never considered it as a dessert… until now. I have the wonderful Gathered Living to thank for my poaching awakening - an interiors brand I recently discovered and ordered a couple of pieces from. I added their quarterly magazine to my first order and nestled within its temptingly styled pages was this recipe for Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears.
After a calming hour prepping and then gently turning the pears over in their fragrantly fruity bath, I’m now lamenting all my missed opportunities to devour a poached pear with vanilla ice-cream. When willing guinea pig Patrick declared our post Sunday roast dessert to be of restaurant quality, I thought it was definitely worthy of a share here. Not least because the deep red hue that the fruit takes on makes this the perfect Farewell To Autumn, Hello Winter dessert. The recipe below serves 6 - 8 people - I poached four pears for us and so we had the same dessert on Monday evening which was a bonus!
My only change in the process was to make them ahead and serve them cold… which I would do if serving to guests for dinner. I personally wouldn’t fancy being out in the kitchen attending to the poaching process all that time after dinner - as a newbie poacher of fruit, I had to keep checking to see if they were done, so cold serve it was. Though on this occasion my reason was not dinner guests patiently waiting at the table but the Strictly results show. Priorities…
poached pears in spiced Red Wine
Ingredients
500ml Red wine - I used Merlot
200g Soft light brown sugar
2 Star anise
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
¼ tsp Mixed spice
Scraped seeds from 1 vanilla pod
Zest of 1 large orange, plus juice of ½
6 - 8 Pears
Creme Fraiche or ice cream to serve
Method
Pour the wine into a deep pan large enough to hold all the pears - four in my case so a big saucepan sufficed. Turn on the heat, add the brown sugar and stir slowly until dissolved. Then add all the other ingredients apart from the pears, cover and let the mixture simmer. Ooohing and Ahhing and saying “Come here and smell this - it smells like Christmas!” is optional but does up the fun factor somewhat.
Peel the pears leaving the stalks intact and then came the part where I managed to almost mangle one of the pears - you can see the poor thing looking a bit worse for wear in the pan on the left. The recipe says use a teaspoon or melon baller to scoop the seeds out through the flat base. A teaspoon wouldn’t work on my stubborn pears and I didn’t have a melon baller so tried an apple corer to no avail. To avoid further damage the other three pears had their middle parts left in which we ate around when served. No biggie.
Gently place them in the festive mixture and cook for 2 - 3 minutes each side, turning gently in the liquid so they cook evenly. The recipe says until fork-tender and I think I did mine for about 25 minutes but in retrospect, it should have been more like 30 for the size of the fruit I had. Remove from pan and keep warm (if serving warm) and allow remaining liquid to reduce until it coats the back of a spoon.
Serve with your accompaniment of choice and some of the syrup and prepare to receive high praise from all family members present!
Thank you Gathered Living for such a gorgeous recipe… I see more poaching (of fruit) in my future!
