Wine Braised Pear Chantilly Food

SPICED RED WINE-POACHED PEARS

Steps:

• In a 4-quart saucepan, combine wine, sugar, orange juice, zest, cinnamon stick and cloves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. While liquid is simmering, peel pears, leaving stem intact and being careful not to blemish the flesh of the pears. Slice 1/2-inch off the bottom of the pears to create a flat bottom. Gently place pears in poaching liquid, cover, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes to ensure even color, until pears are cooked but still firm. Remove saucepan from flame, uncover and cool with pears upright in pan. Once cool, cover and chill in refrigerator at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours, turning occasionally, if desired. Gently remove pears from liquid and allow to come to room temperature. Meanwhile, reduce liquid by about half over a medium-high flame for 15 minutes, until liquid is thicker and slightly syrupy. Remove from flame and let liquid come to room temperature. Drizzle each pear with 2 tablespoons syrup and serve.

BRAISED PEARS IN RED WINE

Steps:

• Cut a thin level horizontal slice from the bottom of each pear so they can easily stand upright.
• In a medium stockpot, combine the wine, water, sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon.
• Bring to a boil over high heat.
• Remove from heat and carefully stand pears upright in pot.
• Return pot to burner and bring to brisk simmer over medium-high heat.
• Reduct the heat to low, cover, and simmer gently until pears are very tender but not falling apart, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, basting with liquid occasionally.
• With slotted spoon transfer pears to a individual serving plates.
• Meanwhile, boil the cooking liquid over high heat until syrupy and reduced to about 1/2 cup.
• Remove and discard cinnamon pieces.
• Spoon syrup evenly over the pears; let cool to room temperature.
• Serve at room temperature.
• Or cover and refrigerate 1- 24 hours and serve chilled.

VANILLA POACHED PEARS

Steps:

• Place the white wine, water, sugar and vanilla bean and pulp into a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
• Core the pears from the bottom. Decrease the heat to medium low and place the pears into the liquid, cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the pears are tender but not falling apart. Maintain a gentle simmer. Remove the pears to a serving dish, standing them upright, and place in the refrigerator.
• Remove the vanilla bean from the saucepan, increase the heat to high and reduce the syrup to approximately 1 cup of liquid, approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Do not allow the syrup to turn brown. Place the syrup in a heatproof container and place in the refrigerator until cool, approximately 1 hour.
• Remove the pears from the refrigerator, spoon the sauce over the pears and serve.

WINE BRAISED PEAR CHANTILLY

Steps:

• Peel and core pears, leaving stems intact. (Note: I used a small melon-baller tool to carefully scoop the core out of each pear). Place pears in a non-reactive dutch oven with wine, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Simmer for 20 minutes, gently turning pears occasionally for even absorption/coloring. Remove pears and cool in refrigerator.
• Simmer wine mixture until reduced to 2 cups syrup. Place cake slices in 4 dessert bowls.
• In a medium bowl, beat whipping cream at medium speed until soft peeks form. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla.
• Place pears upright on cake slices; trim bottoms to stand if necessary. Remove cinnamon sticks and cloves from syrup and pour syrup over pears. Garnish with whipped cream and almond slices.

POACHED PEARS IN HONEY, GINGER AND CINNAMON SYRUP

Steps:

• In a saucepan large enough to hold all the pears, combine the wine, Simple Syrup, cinnamon stick halves, honey, and ginger. Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean and add the bean and seeds to the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the honey has melted. Add the pears and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until the pears are tender. Remove the pears from the liquid and allow to cool.
• Continue to simmer the liquid until it thickens and is reduced by half, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Remove the cinnamon stick halves and the vanilla bean and discard.
• Place each pear on a small serving plate with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Drizzle with the honey, ginger and cinnamon syrup. Serve immediately.
• In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the syrup to cool.

CHANTILLY CREAM (CREME CHANTILLY)

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients.
• Using a hand whisk (balloon whisk) or electric whisk, beat the cream in a stainless steel or glass or china bowl (not plastic- doesn't seem to whip as well).
• It is whipped properly when it is still soft and billowy but holds its shape when the whisk is withdrawn.
• Once the cream is whipped, cover and store in the fridge.
• If it separates slightly, just rewhip to restore its thickness.

POACHED PEARS IN SPICED RED WINE

Steps:

• Halve the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the black seeds and put in a large saucepan with the wine, sugar, cinnamon and thyme. Cut each piece of pod into three long thin strips, add to pan, then lower in the pears.
• Poach the pears, covered, for 20-30 mins, making sure they are covered in the wine. The cooking time will very much depend on the ripeness of your pears - they should be tender all the way through when pierced with a cocktail stick. You can make these up to 2 days ahead and chill.
• Take the pears from the pan, then boil the liquid to reduce it by half so that it's syrupy. Serve each pear with the cooled syrup, a strip of vanilla, a piece of cinnamon and a small thyme sprig.