Poached pears with vanilla ice cream

These beautiful poached pears with vanilla ice cream makes for the perfect summer time dessert. You can also refrigerate leftover poaching syrup to serve over ice cream later in the week.

Ingredients:

2 cups dry red wine, such as cabernet or merlot 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon brown sugar ½ cup orange juice 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 2 cinnamon sticks 2 cloves 4 pears

Method:

1. Add your wine, sugar, orange juice, cinnamon sticks, vanilla extract, nutmeg and cloves to a saucepan, add the lid and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.

2. While the liquid is simmering, peel pears, leaving stem intact and being careful not to blemish the flesh of the pears. Slice 1 centimeter 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.

3. Remove saucepan from heat, uncover and cool with pears standing upright in pan. Once cool, add your lid again and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

4. Gently remove pears from liquid and allow to come to room temperature. Meanwhile, reduce liquid by about half over medium-high heat for 15 minutes, until liquid is thicker and slightly syrupy.

5. Remove from heat and let liquid come to room temperature. Drizzle each pear with 2 tablespoons syrup and serve with vanilla ice cream.

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