With all of that creme anglaise left over from last time, and with three boxes of merlot left over from Sunday’s epic birthday party, I decided that it was the time to poach some pears. They came out lovely-ly.
Poached Pears
These poached pears were great with the leftover creme anglaise, but they’re also great with almost anything else–ice cream, chocolate sauce, custards, puddings–and especially with the sauce that results when you reduce the wine mixture in which you’ve poached the pears. Just reduce that mixture over low heat for a few hours, and you’re in business. I think that no matter what you’re serving them with, poached pears are always prettier garnished with mint, but I had none on hand. . . so I picked a couple of leaves off of the nearest houseplant for this photo, hoping that would lead its viewers to ignore the lumps in the vanilla sauce that resulted from microwaving it. Don’t try that at home, please.
To make sure these are vegan, choose your wine carefully. Some have trace amounts of animals left in them, believe it or not, and it depends on the filtering process used. And definitely don’t serve the pears with creme anglaise, your vegan friends will probably hate you for that.
750 mL bottle of red wine
1 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise -or- 1 tsp vanilla extract
4 whole dried cloves
zest from one orange
juice from one orange
4 firm ripe pears, peeled and with the stems left on
Combine the wine, sugar, vanilla, and cloves in a saucepan that will hold all of the pears, put on low heat, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. While the mixture is heating, zest and juice the orange, and add the zest and juice to the saucepan. Heat until mixture simmers. Add all four pears, and simmer uncovered for 30-40 minutes. Remove pears from sauce. Serve warm.
And, my favorite new mixer stand:
