Poached pears in spiced red wine

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Sara Buenfeld

2 ratings

Recipe by Sara Buenfeld

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1. Halve the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the black seeds and put in a large saucepan with the wine, sugar, cinnamon and thyme. Cut each piece of pod into three long thin strips, add to pan, then lower in the pears.
2. Poach the pears, covered, for 20-30 mins, making sure they are covered in the wine. The cooking time will very much depend on the ripeness of your pears - they should be tender all the way through when pierced with a cocktail stick. You can make these up to 2 days ahead and chill.
3. Take the pears from the pan, then boil the liquid to reduce it by half so that it's syrupy. Serve each pear with the cooled syrup, a strip of vanilla, a piece of cinnamon and a small thyme sprig.

Per serving

235 kcalories, protein 0g, carbohydrate 51g, fat 0 g, saturated fat 0g, fibre 2g, salt 0.3 g

Latest comments and suggestions

• Essgeebee

  19 February 2008

  Essgeebee commented on this recipe

  Delicious, eye catching and easy to do. Just don't reduce the liquour too much. I did and it set in the bowls like toffee!

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• comfortfood

  17 April 2008

  comfortfood commented on this recipe

  You've got to try this - it's an absolute star at a dinner party. My guests thought I'd gone to so much effort to produce this - I didn't let them think otherwise! Very easy, it is really delicious and I echo Essgeebee's comments about not reducing the liquour too far - it didn't go to waste as my kids loved the gooey sauce with icecream. A definite hit.

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• layla

  08 October 2008

  layla rated and commented on this recipe

  

  Fabulous! Tasty and guilt free. It was really easy to keep this bubbling away whilst I tended to the main course cooking.

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• lesley

  18 November 2008

  lesley commented on this recipe

  my daughter will cook this in a local cookery competition

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• ELIZABETH

  29 December 2008

  ELIZABETH commented on this recipe

  I made this yesterday for a dinner party , they were amazing although i had to poach my pears for much longer than stated as they were quite hard when i bought them, the smell of the vanilla was delicious . I also agree with the comments about reducing the sauce it is very easy to over reduce and it does become alot thicker when cooled . I am going to make this again on New Years day it was so yummy ,even my husband ate it and he doesn't like pears

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• DJW

  05 January 2009

  DJW rated and commented on this recipe

  

  So simple but very tasty. Having read comments about reducing i probably went the other way so had loads of sauce even though I kept tasting it whilst pears were poaching - a great hot wine drink even with the rubbish red wine I used. I am going to try freezing left over sauce if it hasn't disappeared out of the fridge. Will definately be making again.

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• iklektik

  07 February 2009

  iklektik commented on this recipe

  I have made this many many times, but by picking the ingredients from a collection of recipes. You can further elivate it by adding 2 cloves, zest of a lemmon and some orange zest. I have have tried £1.99 bottles of red and £6.00 bottles of red with little difference in final taste. As Essgeebee states, don't reduce too much or on a rolling boil or you will have toffee! However... this happened to me last week, angry, I put the spare portions in the fridge, a day later and the toffee had turned back into a nice syrup again!!! Whilst it may be 'fat free' it does have a high sugar content (which I reduced). If you like this then try Pickled Pears. Happy Cooking.

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• Shona

  01 March 2009

  Shona commented on this recipe

  excellent, easy, impressive! dinner party dessert impressed the inlaws!

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• Tess McCourt

  23 September 2009

  Tess McCourt commented on this recipe

  about to make this recipe for a lunch for 160 ... will post a comment once the blisters have healed!

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Ingredients

• 1 vanilla pod
• 1 bottle red wine
• 225g caster sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick , halved
• fresh thyme sprig , plus sprigs to seve
• 6 pears , peeled, but kept whole with stalk intact

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Difficulty and servings

Serves 6

Preparation and cooking times

Prep 20 mins

Cook 30 mins

Fat free

Ingredients

• 1 vanilla pod
• 1 bottle red wine
• 225g caster sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick , halved
• fresh thyme sprig , plus sprigs to seve
• 6 pears , peeled, but kept whole with stalk intact

Per serving

235 kcalories, protein 0g, carbohydrate 51g, fat 0 g, saturated fat 0g, fibre 2g, salt 0.3 g

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