Pears are in season, so we had them poached in red wine and port with the small bowl of gathered blackberries and fresh vanilla for supper last night.
The recipe originally came from “The French Kitchen A Cookbook” by Joanne Harris (of Chocolate fame) and Fran Wardle. It is full of the most beautiful photographs, tailored to appeal to die-hard Francophiles such as myself. This is my (very much amended) version of the one in this book, using the blackberries we picked yesterday. The French Kitchen recipe uses cloves and mace, but I only had vanilla, which worked well but gave quite a different flavour. With the blackberries and the port it had a lovely rich flavour, ‘just like autumn’ observed C.
Poires au Vin Rouge
four ripe but not soft pears
¾ of a bottle of rich red wine
100g soft granulated sugar (and more to taste, if required)
1 large glass of Port
half a vanilla pod
crème fraiche to serve
Pour the wine, Port, sugar and split vanilla pod into a pan and place on a low heat. Meanwhile, carefully peel the pears, taking care to keep their shape and the stalks in place. Place in the pan with the blackberries and continue to simmer for 30 mins or until the pears are softened but not losing their shape.
Place the pears and blackberries in a bowl and return the liquid to a high heat. Take the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds and place them in the liquid.
Bring to a boil and reduce until starting to form a syrup then pour over the pears.
Serve warm or cool with crème fraiche, clotted cream or vanilla ice cream.
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