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Poached Pears

Welcome back! 
Today, we have a recipe for a special preparation of a fruit: Poached Pears! Poaching is a great way to enjoy your pears by imbuing them with interesting flavors that really enhance the pear's natural flavor. This is typically done with a base of wine, red or white, but then the other herbs and spices can vary, really just depending on what you like. Of course, we tried to pick flavors that would complement the wine selection.

Poached Pears


Ingredients:

  • 4 pears
For a red wine poach:
  • 2 cups red wine
  • 1/2 cup orange juice or water (if the wine is not enough to poach the pears)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 piece orange peel
  • 1 stick cinnamon (or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon)
  • Other spices, like cloves, star anise, or peppercorn
For a white wine poach:
  • 2 cups white wine
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 slices ginger, thinly sliced
  • 10 large leaves of mint

Directions:

  1. In a pot, pour in the wine and any additional liquid, if necessary. Place the pears into this pot.
  2. Add in the sugar and honey and stir until evenly incorporated into the liquid.
  3. Add in the other flavoring ingredients (orange peel, ginger, spices).
  4. Cook this in the pot for about 20 to 25 minutes.

  5. Remove the pears from the pot. Then place the pot back on the stove to reduce to about half of the original volume, for about 20 minutes.
  6. Chill the pears and the sauce reduction in the fridge overnight.
These pears can be enjoyed by themselves for that pure poached pear taste, but you could also serve it with some plain yogurt, vanilla ice cream, or something like that. You should also use the sauce reduction to drizzle on top of the pears when serving in order to make the most of your poaching liquid.

-Chefpo
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