Pears Poached in Ginger Wine
Pears Cooked in Ginger Wine
Mamta Gupta
A simple and easy, yet delicious dessert to make for a small dinner party. Many versions exist. I have no idea who first made this delightful dessert!
Varieties of pears that are firm, like Conference are best. Do not use over-ripe or soft pears.Firm pears are best, otherwise they fall apart during cooking.
If you do not have ginger wine, add ginger to ordinary wine. Red wine also works very well. I used to make it in red wine quite often in the 80s and 90s, see last picture. Use a sweet variety of wine.
Serves 6 or 12.
Ingredients
12 small or 6 large, firm pears with stalks
1 bottle of ginger wine
Juice of a lemon (about 2 tbsp.)
A few strands of saffron
50 gm. sugar
Instructions
If using large pears, leave stalks intact. Serving one pear with stalk in a plate looks nice.
Peel the pears. Place in a bowl of water to which lemon juice has been added, to stop discolouration.
Place ginger wine, saffron and sugar in a saucepan and bring to boil. Pears should be covered in wine, so use a pan size that will allow this. Too large a pan will not let them cook covered in wine.
Add pears, bring to boil and reduce heat.
Simmer on gentle heat for 20-30 minutes or until the pears are soft. Turn the heat off.
Lift pears out and place in a serving dish.
Continue to boil the syrup/wine the wine, until it is reduced to half or less, a syrup consistency. Spoon the syrup over the pears.
Serve hot with ice-cream or fresh cream. You can make it in advance, but heat it in a microwave oven for a couple of minutes before serving.
You can garnish pears with flaked almonds, but in my opinion, they are great as they are.
