Poached

 As you can see my daughter has been busier than me over the last couple of days!   She told me she forgets about taking pictures of the end result, as everyone is too keen to eat :)



It's coming up to Mother's day and as a result I think of poached pears! When I was little I made mum poached pears for her mothers day breakfast, I may have been 11 or so (mum?) with dad watching that I didn't burn myself or the house. For mother's day I know anything kids do will be a winner but I think the mother hen was very happy the year I did pears!

I did these Nashi pears the other day as I couldn't find any nice looking pears while at the supermarket. They worked a treat and  kept their shape really nicely though don't have as good a figure as the standard pear!

When I was little I used a recipe, I'm not sure where it is but all I could remember is that it had red wine and cinnamon! As a result this is what I did. Roughly removed the core of my 4 Nashi pears and placed them in a pot, filled with water about 3/4 of the way up, add a splash of red wine (about half a cup) a splash of brandy (1/4 cup) quarter of a cup of sugar, 2 lemon wedges, a mandarin quartered and one cinnamon stick. Cooked on a slow steady simmer for an hour or so until nice and soft.

After removing the pears I reduced the liquid by about half (taste and add extra sugar if necessary). The consistency is a watery syrup which is not too sweet so you can serve your pear in a bit of the soup and vanilla ice cream. You can reduce the juice with extra sugar if you prefer a rich syrup to serve with your Nashi.