RECIPES–Poached Pears In Red Wine

 

Poached Pears in Red Wine

This is a superb dish, and the variations on it are many.  You can use cranberries, pomegranate, gooseberries, or rhubarb separately or together.  I prefer them in combination, but it really doesn’t matter how you combine them:

* 4 ripe, high flavor pears (like Comice), but any tasty pears will do

* 1/2 bottle red wine (this can be ordinary table wine, but not sweet wine)

* 1 lg. stick cinnamon

* 1/2 lg. orange rind

* 6-7 cloves

* 5-6 Tbsp. sugar

* 1 lg. handful (1 cup) cranberries, gooseberries, chopped (into 1” pieces) fresh rhubarb.  You will end up with 2 cups of fruit

* 1 lemon, juiced

-- Put the wine, sugar, lemon juice, orange rind, cinnamon, and cloves into a saucepan large enough so that the pears can stand up, are not too crowded but not too loose, and stir well

- Place the pears standing in the wine.  The pears should be about 3/4 covered

- Boil the wine and pears for about 15 minutes or until you can poke a fork easily into the flesh.  The pears should not be mushy nor too hard, but just so that there is no resistance to the fork.  Be sure to check the pears after 10 minutes.

- Remove the pears when they are done and set aside

- Reduce the liquid down to about1 cup more or less.  The reduced liquid should be thick, but loose enough to be a plentiful sauce.  Before reduction, taste the liquid for sugar, orange, etc.

- Pour the reduced liquid over the pears in a serving bowl.

- Chill and serve.