5th
You’re So Damn Fine: Wine Poached Pears
When it comes to looks, yogurt panna cotta with wine poached pears is a cloying beauty queen; the blushing half moons of pears curled on top of a creamy and slightly tart panna cotta—it’s like dessert for any of Alan Moore’s Lost Girls. I was intrigued by the recipe in thekitchn.com because it was a two-fer, the wine would poach the pears and then boil down into a syrup which could be used for other desserts.
For wine poached pears:
1 750 ml of red wine (about 3 cups)
1 1/2 cups of sugar
cinnamon sticks or spices (cloves, nutmeg, etc)
5-6 pears (depending on the size of your pot, I think you could even use 7-8)
For Yogurt Panna Cotta, see recipe here.
The finest, cheapest red wine I could scavenge from the Jewel-Osco aisles. I contemplated using Manischewitz since it was already sugary wine, but decided to go with the Burgundy instead. In a mixing bowl, stir in wine, spices and sugar until dissolved.
Lots of peeled fruit always reminds me of still life paintings.
Simmer for 30 minutes and the result is a scandalously red pear, the color only permeates through the first half inch.
When cooled, slice and arrange. Sigh, almost too pretty to eat. The panna cotta is also ridiculously easy to make and I encourage you to try the recipe.
Oh what the hell, one more picture can’t hurt.
The left over wine sugar mixture should be left to simmer for another 30 minutes until reduced to about 1 cup. I managed to get at least 1 3/4 cups of syrup from the initial mixture. The syrup should be sticky and pulls into stands as it cools, providing an almost glassing effect.
If you’re too lazy to make the panna cotta, what the hey, just drizzle over pears and eat.
