Stopping by to Say…Poached Pears in Red Wine Reduction!

Hey guys! How is everyone?!

I have been sorely remiss in posting, and I do apologize!

I recently went through one of the biggest and most exciting changes in my life, leaving my previous job to join the Health Warrior team as a Northeastern field marketing manager!

The change has been overwhelming, terrifying, and wonderful in the most indescribable way. I am so in love with my new job—the product, the team, the amazing energy!—and I want to dedicate myself to it 150%.  I’m also still lapping up every fascinating and delicious minute of culinary school .

I believe that I will find a way to incorporate the blog back into my life, but it will probably continue to be infrequent for a while.

There will be times, however, when a luscious recipe keeps niggling in the back of my mind, insisting to be shared…and I must obey.

Such is the case with these delectable poached pears that my lovely mama and I made over Thanksgiving break!

Drizzled in a warm, spicy wine reduction and served with old-fashioned vanilla ice cream, they’re absolutely the perfect holiday dessert.

Ingredients:

• 4 Bosc pears
• 3 cups red wine: something rich and fruity–we combined a Malbec and a Cabernet
• 1.5 cups sugar
• .5 c water
• Peel of 1 lemon
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 5 cloves
• 1/2 vanilla pod seeds scraped out (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

*feel free to play around with your “add-ins” if you do not have the above. Even just the wine and sugar would be delicious.

Tools:

• Parchment paper
• Peeler
• Melon baller (optional)
• apple corer (optional)

To ensure that your pears cook evenly, you can make a cartouche (so fun to say):

Rip off enough parchment paper to form a square. Fold in half, 2x. Starting from the closed-end corner (no open flappies) and roll into a fan shape. Using your fan, measure the diameter of your chosen poaching pot. You want to snip off enough of the parchment (cut from the big side, keeping the smaller-rolled side) so that what’s left is the diameter of the pot. Then snip off about 1/4 inch of the tip. Unfold it–it should be a circle with a small hole in the middle that fits right into your pot.

Hard part’s over! (you can also skip that part and just use a wooden spoon to keep pears submerged).

Instructions:

Peel pears and cut in half. In order to preserve the stem, for aesthetic purposes, cut one half bigger than the other. Use melon-baller to scoop out seeds and use apple corer to scrape out most of the stem, leaving the top intact. If you don’t have those two tools, you can easily use a paring or other small knife.

Add pears and remaining ingredients to medium-sized pot or saucepan, stir briefly and bring mixture to a simmer. Place your cartouche gently on top, if using. Allow pears to simmer, resisting the urge to stir, for 15 minutes or until pears are tender enough that a knife/pick slices will go through easily. You don’t want them to be mush though—they should still have a tiny bite.

When pears are ready, throw away cartouche and remove/plate pears. Place pears in the refrigerator to keep them from continuing to cool.

Increase heat to medium-high and allow sauce wine to reduce (adjust temperature as you see fit). It may take 30 + minutes, but you want to reach nappe consistency, where the liquid can coat the back of your spoon. At this consistency, you can drag your finger through the spoon-coated liquid and you will see the line from your finger. Watch the reduction carefully near the end—it will go from perfection to burnt mess quickly!

When your reduction has reached the desired syrupy consistency, remove pears from fridge and plate as you like. Drizzle reduction over pears and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or crème fraiche.

I hope you are able to create and enjoy this delicate dessert in warmth and comfort with your loved ones, as I did.

Have a wonderful night!

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