Pears in Red Wine Sauce

Submitted by Chef1MOM-Connie

"Adopted from Steam It, the way nature intended cookbook. My girlfriend is an excellent cook. She cooks all types of ethnic foods, specializing in italian, indian, and homegrown. She does not like to bake but found this cookbook and is such a happy camper. Steaming foods is so much better for us but I never knew to steam desserts such as these. This is a to die for delectable dessert for 1, 2, or company. It is elegant on theplate and such a simple prep, it belies the end product. Please enjoy. cooking time does not include chill time, times overlap with prep I gave myself an hour and was good with that and had time to prep other things for dinner while waiting."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1 grated rind and juice orange
• 1 1⁄4 cups red wine
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1⁄2 teaspoon apple pie spice
• 4 firm ripe pears
• 1⁄2 teaspoon arrowroot or 1/2 teaspoon potato flour
• whipped cream, to serve
• 1 clove

directions

1. bring a pan of water to a boil.(large enough to put your steamer in or a casserole dish).
2. Meanwhile put the orange rind, juice, honey, wine, cinnamon stick, apple pie spice, vanilla bean and clove and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Peel pears, leaving stem intact, and cut off a small piece rom the bottom so the poears can stand up.
5. Put into heatproof bowl or casserole dish and pour wine mixture over them.
6. Cover the bowl or dish with tin foil and tie with kitchen string.
7. Put the bowl in the steamer and cover with a tight fitting lid. Set the steamer over hte pan and steam for 35-40 min, until the pears are tender.
8. Remove the pan from the steamer and let cool completely.
9. Transfer to a serving dish standing upright.
10. Remove the cinnamon stick, clove, vanilla bean from the wine mixture and bring to a nboil and cook til reduced by 1/2.
11. Put the arrowroot or flour into the wine sauce and simmer gently, will make a paste. Remove from pan and let cool.
12. Pour the wine sauce over the pears and chill for at least 3 hours.
13. Top with whipped cream.

Reviews

[Jubes]

Great pears- this recipe would be the perfect make ahead recipe for a dinner party. Sorry that I didn't get a photo. Made for December 2011 Recipe Swap in the Aus/NZ Forum

 

[Peter J]

Superb! I used a nice robust shiraz that I thought balanced the sweetness well. I was a bit concerned that my combination of steamer and bowl left one side of the pears not covered with wine during steaming, but just turned a few times while refrigerating and it didn't turn out to be an issue and the end-result had a nice even color.