When your dear friend is an accomplished food writer/editor and she is coming for dinner, what does a non-foodie do? Well, I go to that friend's own cookbooks and recipes for great ideas. My dear friend is Julia Aitken and she wrote my favourite and well-thumbed cookbook called "Easy Entertaining". All the dishes for a recent dinner party were collected from there and featured here is the dessert: "Pears poached in spice red wine" (page 158). Yummmmmmy! Thanks Julia for another easy-to-follow recipe!
I peeled 6 pears (leaving stems intact) and used a small teaspoon to remove cores.
In a saucepan, I added orange zest, juice from 1 orange, water, sugar and bay leaves and stirred over medium heat until the sugar dissolved.
I poured 2 cups of full-bodied red wine into the orange mixture and simmered 30 minutes (covered).
After 30 minutes, the pears were removed from saucepan and placed in a serving bowl. The wine mixture was further reduced until it was more like a syrup and then poured over standing pears. I let cool like this completely before arranging on individual serving plates. At the table I added fresh whipped cream to be spooned out as desired.
If you can't find "Easy Entertaining" in your local bookstore, the recipe for this fabby dessert can be found in an article featuring Julia's recipe written by "the wine guy" at: tonyaspler.com
