Poached Pears In Spiced Red Wine

I promise, there’s a recipe in this post. You can scroll down if you like… But first, I want to talk a bit about fruit.

There are so many nutrition websites that will tell you a bunch of different things about fruit. Some “rules” are:

Eat as much fruit as you want before noon, than don’t eat any after.
Eat fruit at least 30 minutes before any other food so that other foods you eat don’t interfere with proper digestion.
Wait at least 3 hours after eating any other food before eating a piece of fruit.
Don’t eat too much fruit, as it’s high in sugar.
Don’t eat too little fruit, as it has so many health benefits.
Don’t eat fruit as a dessert.
Don’t mix fruit with other foods such as dairy, grains and meat.

Interesting facts about fruit: Fruit digests in your small intestine, not in your stomach. The journey of digestion starting in your stomach and moving into your small intestine takes between 2-3 hours to complete. However, after about 30 minutes, you can eat other foods without them hindering the proper digestion of fruit. Keeping this in mind, other foods such as grains and dairy take at least an hour and a half to digest, and can take up to 5 hours. Animal proteins take anywhere from 30 minutes to 5 hours to digest. Eating fruit before the other foods in your stomach have gotten a chance to properly digest causes the fruit to ferment inside of your stomach. It causes bloating, increased acids and spoiling of the food your body is trying to digest. Also, eating fruit on an empty stomach rather than on a full stomach will provide you with the detoxifying properties that fruit contains.

As much as I want to follow these “rules” to get the most nutritional value out of fruit as possible, I have to say that the last two rules up there just don’t do it for me. While I do try my best to eat most of my daily intake of fruit in the morning {it’s great, because it regulates your blood sugar levels and perks you up almost as well as that double espresso from Starbucks… Almost…}, I can’t help but love the thought of fruit in my meals and desserts. Fruit crumbles, pear flambé, fruit parfait, cheesecake with fruit, mango & pineapple salsa with chicken… I could really go on for pages about this, but I’m sure you get the point.

Random fact about me: I quite frequently have my dessert before my dinner. Normally, this is something I do because I almost always have a sweet tooth. But now, I feel like I can have a good “reason” if my dessert contains fruit… Yes, “health reasons”, that’s why I need to have my apple crumble before the main course…

Luckily, things like poached pears can be eaten for breakfast… {If you disagree, tough! My blog&kitchen, my rules.} So last weekend, I decided to poach some up for Joe and myself to enjoy! {Mainly because there wasn’t anything else in the house to make for breakfast…} For this recipe, I did use red wine in the liquids, but you can substitute this out for water if you like. I do recommend keeping the red wine involved, as it gives a brilliant colour to the pears, and an interesting flavour. Also, you can’t get “drunk” off of the poaching liquid because most of the alcohol content is burned off during cooking. However, if you are pregnant or a non-drinker, you can easily use a red grape juice to get the same colour. I also used the remaining poaching liquid to make a reduction that I could drizzle over the finished pears… Also, with the ingredients such as sugar and spices, it really is to taste. If you like things sweeter, add more sugar. If you like things more spicy, add more cloves. You get the point… So easy, and so tasty! Enjoy!

Poached Pears In Spiced Red Wine

Ingredients:

2 pears, peeled, cored & cut into quarters {I used Bosc pears. They’re my favourite!}
Equal parts red wine and orange juice {You need enough to cover the pears, and allow them a little room to float a bit. I used about 1 cup of each liquid, resulting in a total of 2 cups of liquid.}
1 cinnamon stick
About 1 tbsp vanilla extract
About 2 tbsp brown sugar
Dash each of ground nutmeg and cloves
About 1 tbsp of ground cinnamon

Method:

Place all ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium – high heat.
Once liquid comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer while stirring occasionally, for about 20-30 minutes. This time is fully approximate, as it depends on how tender you want the pears. I kept mine in for 25 minutes, then arranged the pears on a plate so that I could make the reduction to drizzle over them…
To make the reduction, simply continue to cook the poaching liquid until the volume has decreased by about half. It will become a thicker syrup consistency, and again, this is to personal preference. Some people like a thinner syrup, while others like a thicker syrup. Don’t cook it for too long though, otherwise it will taste bitter. I simmered mine for about another 25 minutes after the pears were done. For me, it was done when I poured some off of a spoon and a film of syrup remained. {Pictured below.}

Filed under: breakfast, desserts, Recipes Tagged: breakfast, cinnamon, culinary, dessert, drunken pear, facts, fruit, health, information, nutrition, orange juice, pear, poached pear, recipe, red wine, reduction, Sweet, syrup, vanilla