Happy Thanksgiving my little health fiends!
Poached pears look so impossibly gorgeous perked up on their plate, dribbling with boozy sweetness (like your favourite batty aunt by 4pm every Thanksgiving). These ones have star anise which helps with digestion and feel achingly good after a big meal.
Do them 1-3 days in advance so that you can sit back and enjoy everybody else’s chaos. Devastatingly tasty with thick Greek yoghurt, soya cream (pictured) or home made coconut yoghurt.
Red wine poached pears with star anise
Serves 4-8
450ml dry red wine
3 tablespoons maple syrup, date syrup or brown rice syrup
1 orange
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 star anise
4 firm, ripe conference pears
Bring the red wine, your chosen syrup and the juice of 1 orange to a rolling boil. Add the spices, letting it simmer for 5 minutes while you peel the pears. I like leaving the stem intact and slicing the butt off the pears to create a flat base. Gently place the peeled pears in your poaching liquid, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes. It’s useful to turn the pears every so often to ensure even colour.
Remove the saucepan from its flame, uncover and cool with the pears still upright. Once cool, cover and chill in refrigerator until dessert time. Remove the pears delicately from their liquid and leave at room temperature. Meanwhile, reduce the poaching liquid over a medium-high flame for 25 minutes, until the liquid is more viscous and slightly syrupy.
Serve the pears on individual plates, and mmmmmizzle with the licky-sticky poaching liquid, a dollop of yoghurt or cream, and some mortifying Christmas photos.
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Until then! xxx
