A very elegant and warm dinner party dessert for the cold winter.
Ingredients
- 400 ml fruity red wine
- 200ml water
- 200g caster sugar
- 100 ml sweet wine or port
- 2 cinnamon stick
- 1 vanilla pod
- 3 Star anise
- Orange zest
- 4 pears peeled, but kept whole with stalk intact
Method
Place the red wine, water, sugar, cinnamon, orange zest, star anise and vanilla into a deep medium pan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Once it simmers, add the pears, flat sides down, making sure they are fully covered by wine. Then cover and continue simmering until the pears are tender. It should take about 20/30 minutes, depending on the pears. Remember to rotate the pears.
Remove them from the wine mixture. Turn the heat up to high and boil until the liquid has been reduced by half.
Place one pear into a shallow bowl and pour the syrup over the pear.
ENJOY!
