Skip to main content

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

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Banana Chiffon Cake

Welcome back!  Today, we have another recipe for when you want to use some of your extra bananas! Unlike the Banana Bread from last time, this one is basically a chiffon cake that is modified to accommodate for the bananas. It keeps the really light and fluffy texture of the cake while also having the banana flavor, and it also goes nicely with other fresh fruit like shown below.  Banana Chiffon Cake Makes one 9-10" pan Ingredients: For the egg yolk mixture: 7 egg yolks 2 tablespoons sugar 2 medium bananas 80 grams oil 90 grams orange juice 110 grams cake flour 10 grams corn starch 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda For the egg white mixture: 7 egg whites 110 more grams of sugar 1 teaspoon lime/lemon juice Directions: Mix the egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Then, add oil and mix thoroughly. Then, add orange juice and mix. Then, add vanilla extract. Sift the flour along with the baking soda and baking powder and add it in the egg yolk mixture. Gently fold ...

Key Lime Pie

Welcome back!  Today, we have one of my favorite desserts: Key Lime Pie! There's so many things that are great about this dish from the texture to the combination of flavors. Plus, I prefer the flavor of key limes as compared to normal limes, as key limes are tarter and more citrus-y. Now this is a sour dish, so if that's not your thing, then you can cut back on some of the key lime juice and it'll be better. Any way, it's a great dessert! Key Lime Pie Makes a 10" tart pan or 9" pie pan Ingredients: Crust: 2 1/2 cups almond flour 6 tablespoons butter, diced 1/4 cup sugar Pinch of salt If you want to use graham crackers for the crust, use about 1 1/2 cups (150 grams) of crushed graham cracker crumbs (about 10 sheets) along with 5 tablespoons melted butter and mix. Filling: 4 egg yolks* 1 14-ounce can of condensed milk 2/3 cup key lime juice (about 1 pound of key limes should be enough for decorations too) 1 tablespoon key lime zest *If you don't want to use...

Tiramisu

Welcome back to Chez Chefpo!  Today, we've got a classic Italian dessert: Tiramisu! No twists on this one, this is your classic tiramisu that's about as traditional as it gets. In fact, it's truly comparable to the authentic tiramisu that you could find in Italy (more about this below)! While this is not the cheapest recipe, it is actually pretty easy and is definitely worth making because it is veramente delicioso! Tiramisu Makes one 7" by 9" pan Ingredients: Cream: 4 egg yolks 50 grams sugar 16 ounces Mascarpone cheese (preferably room temperature) 200 grams heavy whipping cream 2-3 tablespoons Kahlua* Coffee Mixture: 120 mL cooled espresso (if you don't have this, 2 tablespoons of espresso powder plus 120 mL of hot water will do) 2-3 tablespoons Kahlua* You will also need: 1 package, or about 24, lady fingers Cocoa powder to be dusted onto the top *If you don't have Kahlua, you can just use rum.  Here's a reference for some of the more special ingre...