A good dessert for the post Christmas cleanse retaining the flavours of the season, but in a more delicate way. One of the gifts I received for Christmas was a little selection of food from Fortnum and Mason - I'm looking forward to the chutney and ginger conserve but I really wasn't sure what to do with the four sachets of mulled wine spices. I'm not really a mulled wine person and can't imagine wanting mulled wine four times before the best before date of these sachets - next October.
I think most people can identify with a post-Christmas glut of goodies around the house - cakes, nuts, chocolates and so forth, but for some reason I also have a glut of fruit. I have no idea why, perhaps I bought it to offset the seasonal goodies, but buy it I clearly did, and it needed using up. Part of this glut was pears. Then inspiration struck - pears poached in a light sugar syrup, with mulled wine spices.
The little sachets contain cinnamon, dried orange peel, allspice and cloves - a lovely warming mixture of spices that I'm sure would be ideal for mulled wine, but are also perfect for these poached pears. I peeled my pears, halved and quartered them, then put them in a pan, covered them (just) with water, added 50g caster sugar and tied the mulled wine spice sachet around the pan handle. I brought the water to a simmer, and poached the pears until tender. I allowed them to cool before refrigerating. I served mine with a generous dollop of fromage frais - a delicious, fresh end to a meal.
I guess you could reduce the syrup further and make more of a coating consistency with it, but I just wanted a light syrup. These were lovely, I'm not sure what it is about the texture of cooked pear, but I really love it, and I'll do this again - perhaps the spice sachets could be used to flavour an apple sauce.... I still have three to use!
6 comments:
Great thinking "outside the box"!
Mulled pears sound delicious.
how interesting that you love the texture of cooked pear - I love raw pear but am not so keen on it cooked - I often see poached pear recipes and the thought of the pear puts me off - if only I had a surplus of stone fruits I would enjoy them this way but they just get eaten!
Poached pear is one of the loveliest things - the soft texture and fruity flavour can't be beaten.
As someone who can't eat fresh 'raw' pear (too gritty) it amazes my family how much I adore them when baked!
Very creative use of the spice kit. Looks really light abd refreshing ... perfect for that new year resolution I've not quite gotten arouns to just yet!
so interesting, I love poached pears but rarely make them... my grandma tells me a story that when my mum was pregnant with me, grandma came to our house to 'prepare' it for the baby... it happened to be pear season so she picked ALL the pears from the garden and poached them... when mum came home she said there we pears everywhere!!!... love them!
What a clever use for those sachets. I am left with clementines and oranges. Delia makes her poached pear syrup using arrowroot, so you have a clear slightly silky syrup effect. I love poached pears too, the harder the pear to start with the better the end result. I think I like them better than anyone else in the house though, so don't make them that often.
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