Poached Fruit With Clove Granite And Cookies Recipes

PERFECT POACHED FRUIT

Steps:

• Place the vin santo, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla bean, and zests in a large, shallow saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Peel the pears, leaving the stems intact, and scoop out the seeds from the bottom with an apple corer or melon baller. Lay half the pears on their sides in the poaching liquid and simmer for 20 minutes, carefully turning the pears once with a spoon. Remove with a slotted spoon. Poach the remaining pears in the same liquid. Snip off the hard stems from the figs with scissors. Add the figs, apricots, prunes, and the first batch of poached pears and simmer 5 to 10 more minutes, until the pears and the dried fruit are all tender.
• Chill the pears, dried fruit, zests, and poaching liquid. Remove the cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla bean before serving if you like.

POACHED SECKEL PEARS WITH CLOVE GRANITE

Steps:

• For the granite, combine the water, cloves and light-brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. Remove the cloves and stir in the vinegar. Pour into a shallow metal pan and place in the freezer. Freeze until firm but not frozen solid, about 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes.
• For the pears, combine the wine, cloves, honey and nutmeg in a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the lemon and orange slices and the pears. Cover and simmer until the pears are tender, about 15 minutes. Remove the pears and fruit slices with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Raise the heat and simmer the poaching liquid until reduced to 1 cup, about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.
• Coat 4 plates with the poaching liquid and place 3 pears in the center of each plate. Arrange the orange and lemon slices around the pears and place a scoop of the granite beside them. Serve immediately.

POACHED FRUIT WITH CLOVE GRANITE AND COOKIES

Steps:

• To poach the fruit, combine the wine, sugar and cloves in a large wide pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and add the pears and figs. Simmer until pears are soft but not falling apart, about 15 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, use a paring knife to remove all peel and pith from the oranges. Cut the sections out from between the membranes. Add the sections and simmer 1 minute. Remove the fruit from the liquid with a slotted spoon, place in a bowl and let cool. Cover and refrigerate.
• Let the syrup stand until cool and strain into a shallow, nonreactive pan. Place in the freezer until firm throughout, stirring from time to time. (The granite can be made a day ahead.)
• To make the cookies, pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Add the flour, salt and sugar and process until nuts are ground and mixture is well mixed. Add the butter and pulse to combine. Add the egg and milk and process just until the dough begins to come together.
• Press the dough together and divide it in half. Shape into cylinders, about 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. If the dough is very cold, let stand at room temperature until firm but not too hard. Cut the dough across into 1/8-inch slices and place on the baking sheets about 1 inch apart. (Cookies must be baked in batches.) Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool.
• Melt the chocolate and dip half of each cookie in the chocolate. Set aside and let dry completely.
• To serve, arrange the pears, figs and oranges in 10 shallow bowls. Use a spoon to scrape the granite into mounds and place a mound in each bowl. Serve immediately, passing the cookies separately.

POACHED FRUIT

Steps:

• Peel and dice fruit. Place Riesling in saucepan, add sugar, basil and fruit. Simmer slowly until fruit is tender. Cool and serve over ice cream.

POACHED FRUIT

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, combine wine, sugar, cinnamon sticks, lemon peel, and 5 cups water. Place over medium heat, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Gently place nectarines in the liquid. Add more water if needed to cover nectarines. Place a square of cheesecloth over the fruit, and top with a small plate to keep fruit submerged.
• Increase heat to high, and bring liquid to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook until nectarines are tender but not soft, about 5 minutes. Remove nectarines from liquid, and allow to cool
• Return liquid to a boil, and cook until reduced to a syrup that will coat the back of spoon, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and cool.
• Cut nectarines in half, and remove pit. Place two halves on serving plate. Drizzle with syrup. Top each half with a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprig of mint.

DRIED FRUIT POACHED IN PORT

Steps:

• Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to very low and cover. Cook for about 30 minutes, at which point most of the port will have been absorbed.
• If the fruit is tender, it's done. If not, add 1/2 cup water, bring to a boil again, cover, and cook for another 15 minutes. Repeat once more if necessary.
• Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon, then strain the liquid to remove the spices. Serve a portion of the fruit warm, cold, or at room temperature with a spoonful or two of its juice.
• Substitute almost any sweet or neutral liquid for the port: water, oloroso sherry, red wine (add a tablespoon of sugar), sweet white wine, orange juice, and so on.
• If you prefer less-than-sweet results, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end of cooking.
• Vary the spices. Try a tiny grating of nutmeg in place of the allspice, peppercorns, and star anise, for example. Some coriander seeds are also nice.
• Since the preparation of this dish is absolutely foolproof, the challenge (and most of the fun) lies entirely in the shopping, especially since there is an incredible variety of dried fruits available, much of it of superhigh quality. In the course of fine-tuning this recipe, I tried not only the obvious prunes, figs, apricots, peaches, and pears, but also cherries, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, and even banana. I tend toward the traditional but really enjoyed the tartness that dried pineapple added to the mixture and encourage you to experiment and find the mix of fruits that suits you best.