Oven Poached Pears With Lemon Honey And Nutmeg Food

BAKED PEARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Place pear halves, cut side up, in a shallow 1-qt. baking dish. Place butter in the center of each; drizzle with lemon juice. , Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over pears. Top with marmalade. Bake, covered, until heated through, 15-20 minutes.

POACHED PEARS WITH HONEY, LEMON BALM AND RAISINS

Steps:

• To prepare pears, place 6 cups of the cold water in a bowl. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 lemon into the bowl and add the lemon too. Core the pears from the bottom and peel, leaving the stems intact. As you peel each pear, place it in the bowl to prevent it from discoloring. Also place the cores and small pieces in the bowl. After the pears are peeled, wrap the cores and small pieces in the cheesecloth, folded double, and tie tightly with string. Place the remaining 7 cups of cold water and the honey in a pot and stir to dissolve the honey. Add the tangerine peel, raisins, lemon balm and cheesecloth bundle, together with the pears. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and poach the pears at a low boil for 1 1/2 hours, leaving the lid ajar. Touch the pears with the tip of a chopstick. A properly poached pear should give a little; the pears should be soft and have taken on a light beige color. Turn off the heat. Remove the lemon balm, tangerine peel, and cheesecloth bundle from the pot and discard. Transfer each pear to an individual soup plate, sitting it upright, stem up. Divide the sweet soup equally among the plates. There should be about 4 1/2 cups of soup. Divide the raisins equally as well. Garnish each pear by inserting a sprig of mint into it at the stem and serve.

OVEN-POACHED PEARS WITH LEMON, HONEY AND NUTMEG

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F. Place large baking sheet in oven to heat. Cut 4 sheets of foil, each about 12 inches long. Place 1 foil sheet on work surface. Arrange 6 pear wedges, overlapping slightly, on 1 half of foil. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon honey. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon currants, 1/4 teaspoon lemon peel and pinch of nutmeg. Fold foil over, enclosing contents completely and crimping edges tightly to seal. Repeat with remaining foil sheets, pears, honey, currants, lemon peel and nutmeg.
• Place foil packets on heated baking sheet. Bake until pears are tender, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
• Open foil packets into 4 shallow bowls to retain juices. Top each serving with 3 tablespoons vanilla yogurt.

LEMON GRASS SPICED POACHED PEARS

Steps:

• Slice the pears in half. Coat with lemon juice to prevent browning.
• In a saucepot, add the sugar and water and bring to a boil to make a syrup. Reduce to a simmer and add the pear halves, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, and lemon grass. Continue to cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until pears are tender, but not falling apart.

BAKED PEARS WITH LEMON SAUCE

Steps:

• Make lemon sauce ahead of time: Dissolve arrowroot in a little milk; place in a saucepan with rest of milk and cinnamon stick.
• Stir and cook over low heat, stirring, until slightly thickened.
• Stir in lemon peel, lemon juice and 1/4 cup of the honey.
• Remove from heat, remove and discard cinnamon stick, cover and place in refrigerator to chill.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Halve and core pears; place in a glass baking dish.
• In a small saucepan, bring 1/4 cup honey, water and cloves just to boiling point, but do not boil; pour over pears.
• Bake until pears are fork-tender (time for this varies considerably depending on firmness of pears--really hard ones can take as much as an hour).
• Remove and discard whole cloves.
• Serve warm with chilled lemon sauce.

OVEN-POACHED PEARS WITH RED WINE

Steps:

• Combine the wine, water, sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves and lemon slices in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, until the mixture is reduced to approximately 4 cups liquid. Set aside until ready to use.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Peel the pears but leave the stems on. Place the pears upright in a baking dish just large enough to hold them comfortably. Bring the wine mixture to a boil again and pour it over the pears (it will not cover them completely). Bake for 1 hour, basting every 15 minutes. The pears should darken to a rich mahogany color as they cook.
• When the pears are done (still firm but easily pierced with a fork), remove them from the oven. The liquid in the baking dish should be syr-upy. If it is not, transfer it to a saucepan and cook on the stove over a high heat until there are approximately 2 cups of syrup.
• Place the pears in compote or similar dishes and cover with syrup. The pears may be served with a ricotta cream sauce (see following recipe).

GINGER-POACHED PEARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°. Core pears from bottom, leaving stems intact. Peel pears; cut in half vertically. Cut 1/4 in. from bottoms to level if necessary. Place in an ungreased 13x9-in. baking dish. , Place ginger ale and honey in a small saucepan. Cook and stir until combined; spoon over pears. Bake, uncovered, 25-30 minutes or until tender, basting occasionally., With a slotted spoon, remove pears to individual serving dishes. Transfer pan juices to a small saucepan; stir in ginger. Cook and stir over medium heat 5-8 minutes or until heated through. Spoon over pears; sprinkle with pecans.

POACHED PEARS IN GINGER-LEMON SAUCE

Steps:

• With a vegetable peeler, pare yellow part only of peel from lemon.
• Cut peel into julienne strips to make 1 table- spoon.
• Ream enough lemon to make 1 tablespoon juice. In a 5 to 6 quart pan, combine lemon peel, lemon juice, ginger, sugar and 3 cups water.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add pears and more water, if needed, to cover them.
• Simmer, covered, until pears are tender when pierced, about 30 minutes.
• Put pears in 6 shallow-rimmed dishes or shallow bowls.
• On high heat, boil syrup, uncovered, until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 40 minutes.
• Pour syrup over pears.
• Cool, cover and chill until cold or up to 2 days.

PORT AND HONEY POACHED PEARS WITH LEMON CURD MOUSSE

Steps:

• In a large heavy saucepan simmer the wine, the Port, and the water with the sugar, the honey, the zest, and the cloves, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved and add the pears, peeled, halved, and cored. Simmer the pears, covered, turning them occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until they are tender, transfer them and the zest with a slotted spoon to a shallow bowl or serving dish, and boil the poaching liquid until it is reduced to about 1 1/2 cups. Let the poaching liquid cool, pour it over the pears, and chill the mixture, covered, until it is cold. The poached pears may be made 2 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Serve the poached pears with the lemon curd mousse.