Poach pear is one of the easiest yet most elegant desserts.
It's traditionally a French dessert but I gave my recipe a Persian twist with poaching it with saffron, cardamom and a splash of rose water.
To poach means to place food in a cooking liquid and then to cook the whole thing slowly.
There are endless ways to make poach pear. You can make it with either white wine, red wine or even whiteout wine (I personally prefer it with wine because why not!!). You can also use any spices that you want but believe me this recipe won't let you down.
Either you wanna make a romantic dessert for two, or you wanna make them for a large crowd; these poached pears are beautiful, tasty yet easy enough to satisfy you and your guests.
What to serve with poach pear? To be honest, sky is your limit! There are so many ways you can serve these beauties like with pastry cream, with syrup, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or whipped yogurt, ... remember don't limit yourself.
What wine to use? Well, chose a wine that you like to drink because you'll definitely be able to taste it, but also not a very expensive one.
What pear to choose? I don't want to name any particular pear to limit your options, but I'll say whatever you choose make sure that they are hard or at least, not quite ripe. (you don't want to end up with soggy pears). I used Bosc pears for this recipe though.
What is that shinny, beautiful syrup in the photo? It's the poaching liquid that I reduced to use it for more flavor. It's a bomb of saffron, cardamom and rosewater flavor.
I also would recommend to keep the pears in the liquid at least over night so it can absorb all the flavor.
You can keep the pears in to the liquid in fridge for about a week, but if you want take them out of the liquid I recommend to serve them in an hour.
Ingredients
3 Medium Bosc pears
Star anise: 5
Cardamom: 12 pods
Rosewater: 2 table spoon (optional)
Grind saffron: 1 tea spoon
White wine: 2 cups
Water: 2 cups
Granulated sugar: 1 1/2 cup
Toasted almonds : For garnish(optional)
Instruction
Place the water, white wine, rosewater, spices and sugar in a large saucepan. Gently stir the mixture till most of the sugar dissolve (Don't worry if some of the sugar remain in shape, they will dissolve over the heat).
Peal the pears, remove hardcore from base and place them in to the saucepan. If the liquid is still not covering the pears, just add some more water.
Bring the liquid to boil and immediately turn down the heat to simmer.
Cover the pears with a circle parchment paper and let it cook for 25-35 minutes or until a knife slides easily into the pears.
Carefully remove the pears from the liquid and set them aside.
To make a syrup-like sauce, keep a cup of liquid in the saucepan and boil it for five to ten minutes or till you achieve the desire thickness.
Pour the syrup over the pears once you want to serve them cold or hot and نوش جان
