Poached pears in spiced red wine

Poached pears in spiced red wine

A completely fat-free pud that isn't boring. It's not just Good Food, it's genius

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 6

Preperation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 20 mins

Cook time

Cook 30 mins

Fat free

Method

  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

Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2008.

Latest comments and suggestions

  • 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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  • 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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  • 08 October 2008

    layla rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    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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  • 18 November 2008

    lesley commented on this recipe

    my daughter will cook this in a local cookery competition

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  • 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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  • Binder photo DJW

    05 January 2009

    DJW rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    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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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 6

Preperation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 20 mins

Cook time

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
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Per serving

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

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