Pears In Red Wine With A Fresh Cheese Filling Recipes

PEARS IN RED WINE WITH A FRESH CHEESE FILLING

Steps:

• Pears: Peel the pears and core them whole using a melon baller to scoop out the pulp from the bottom. In a large saucepan, place the wine, sugar, cinnamon sticks and orange peel and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and add the pears. Simmer them for about 30 minutes until fork tender. Baste the pears occasionally to make sure they absorb the wine evenly. Remove the pears from the poaching liquid, remove the cinnamon stick and reduce the liquid to 1 cup. Set it aside to cool.
• Filling: Place the cream cheese, sugar and brandy in a food processor and blend. Transfer it to a bowl and fold in the whipped cream. Place it in a pastry bag with a plain tip and fill the pears. Place them in a shallow serving bowl and pour the reduced liquid over them. Chill.
• Sauce: Puree the strawberries with the sugar and chill. To serve the dish, cover the pears with the strawberry puree.

PEARS IN RED WINE

Steps:

• Put sugar, wine, water, cinnamon, cloves and lemon rind in a large saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves.
• Peel the pears leaving the stalks on.
• Cut off the core at the base. You are only cutting a small amount (5mm) to help the pears stand upright.
• Add pears to the saucepan.
• Cover and simmer gently for 20 - 25 minutes or until the pears are soft and coloured by the wine. (You can weight the pears down by an upside down cereal bowl to help them get coloured).
• Remove the pears carefully from the saucepan with a slotted spoon and place standing upright in a heatproof bowl or dish (I use a plastic Tupperware dish with a lid so that it can be put in the fridge later).
• Increase the heat and boil the liquid in the saucepan rapidly until the liquid reduces and it thick and syrupy. This can take between 10 and 20 minutes dependent on the quantity of liquid.
• Take the saucepan off the heat and allow to cool slightly. (Careful the sugary liquid is very hot).
• Strain the liquid to remove lemon rind and cloves and pour over the pears. (I hold a sieve over the pears to do this).
• When the pears and the syrup are quite cold chill in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Spoon the syrup over them from time to time this helps to give them more colour. (Again I weight them down with an upside down cereal bowl).

POIRES AU VIN ROUGE (PEARS IN RED WINE)

Steps:

• Combine the red wine, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, orange zest, fennel seed, peppercorns, and bay leaves in a large saucepan. Peel the pears, and remove the cores from the bottom, leaving the stems intact; set aside. Bring the wine to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Add the pears, return to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and continue simmering until tender, about 25 minutes.
• Remove the pears from the wine syrup, cover, and refrigerate until cold. Strain the syrup through a mesh sieve, and discard the spices. Simmer the syrup over medium heat until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Refrigerate the syrup until cold.
• Once the syrup is cold, pour over the pears, cover, and chill at least 2 hours before serving.

RED WINE POACHED PEARS WITH MASCARPONE FILLING

Steps:

• Peel pears and leave stem intact. In a large pan, bring wine and an equal amount of cold water to a simmer. Split vanilla bean lengthwise and add to wine & water. Add cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and sugar, to taste. Add pears to liquid and simmer for about 20 min or until tender. Cool pears in wine mixture to room temperature. Refrigerate in poaching liquid (overnight).
• Remove pears from poaching liquid. Remove stems from pears and set stems aside. Core pears with apple corer, leaving pear whole.
• Whisk together mascarpone cheese, whip cream, pinch cinnamon and icing sugar until smooth. Transfer to piping bag. Pipe into cored pears and finish by putting stems into filling at top of pear. Refrigerate.
• Bring sauce to simmer and reduce by half. Add butter to reduced sauce and stir until combined. Spoon generously over pears. Cool to room temperature before serving.

RED WINE POACHED PEARS WITH CHOCOLATE FILLING

Steps:

• Cut bottom off each pear and core from the bottom to give each pear a flat bottom to stand upright.
• Combine wine, water, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and star anise in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and arrange pears on their sides in the saucepan. Simmer pears for 10 to 12 minutes. Turn pears and continue simmering until tender and easily poked with a fork, 8 to 10 minutes. Work in batches if needed.
• Remove pears from wine mixture and place in a serving dish, standing upright. Continue boiling wine sauce until reduced to about 3/4 cup, 5 to 10 more minutes.
• Fill each pear's core cavity with chocolate sauce. Pour wine sauce over each pear.

RED WINE PEARS

Steps:

• Using a sharp vegetable peeler, peel the pears top to bottom, leaving them whole, with stems attached and the core intact.
• Put the pears in a large, wide nonreactive pot (enameled or stainless steel) in one layer. Add the wine, sugar and spices. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer, and cook for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted encounters no resistance. Remove from the heat and transfer the pears to a deep container, leaving the liquid in the pot.
• Heat the poaching liquid over high and boil down until it is reduced by half. (You should have about 2 1/2 cups syrup.) Pour syrup over pears, and refrigerate overnight if possible.
• To serve, put each pear in a soup plate and spoon over a little of the red wine syrup. Add a dollop of crème fraîche or a scoop of ice cream, and finish with a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds.

POACHED PEARS IN SPICED RED WINE

Steps:

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.