Poached Pears Poires Pochees Recipes

FRENCH ORANGE POACHED PEARS (POIRE AVEC ORANGE)

Steps:

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, mix together the orange juice, brown and white sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Place pears into the syrup, and cover; simmer pears for 1 hour and 15 minutes, spooning sauce over pears every 10 minutes, and turning pears over twice during cooking time.
• Transfer pears to individual serving dishes. Continue cooking the syrup, stirring often, until thickened, about 15 more minutes, then mix in the walnuts. Pour the sauce over the pears to serve.

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.

POACHED PEARS BELLE HELENE

Steps:

• Place water in a heavy pot. Stir in zest and juice of 1 lemon. Place pears in pot. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds and split pods to the poaching liquid. Pour in sugar.
• Bring pot to a simmer over medium-high heat; stir gently to dissolve sugar with minimal jostling of the pears. Reduce heat so pears continue cooking over a steady, gentle simmer. Pears need to stay submerged, so place a small plate over them in the pot to keep them under the liquid. Simmer until pears are just tender, 20 to 25 minutes. (Remove plate to test the pears for doneness.) Remove pot from heat and let pears cool to room temperature in the poaching liquid.
• Transfer pears and vanilla beans to a storage container and cover with some of the poaching liquid. Cover and refrigerate until pears are thoroughly chilled, several hours or overnight. Reserve all of the poaching liquid (see footnote).
• Heat hot fudge sauce in a saucepan over medium heat until warm. Dip base of pear into the chocolate and spoon chocolate along the sides except for the top inch or so of the pear.
• Place dipped pears in individual serving bowls with another generous spoonful of syrup and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.