“The war had not touched the fabled bounty of Highgarden. While singers sang and tumblers tumbled, they began with pears poached in wine…” -A Clash of Kings
Modern Poached Pears
Thoughts:
These are utterly delicious.
Imbued with a vibrant pink color from the wine, the medieval pears have a soft, warm texture, and aren’t overly sweet. The taste is reminiscent of mulled wine, redolent with spices. This is an authentically medieval dessert that will transport you to a seat at a long trestle table in a huge stone hall, with hounds fighting for scraps in the corner, and the buzz of mead-inspired conversation all around.
The modern recipe produces an absolutely exquisite dessert. The caramel sauce is warm and gooey, and somehow gives the impression of butter and spices that aren’t actually there, all of which is underlain by the subtlest of orange flavors. It tastes of autumn, of crisp days spent in an orchard, and evenings in by the fire.
Both of these recipes are winners, and can be found in the Cookbook.
These look heavenly!! I must try this!
Poached pears are a classic restaurant dessert. To get a nice round pear, after peeling it use a NEW green scrub pad to smooth out the edges. An easy way to get the core out is to use a small scoop to go through the bottom. It’ll also help to get the poaching liquid inside the pear. I’ve reduced the poaching liquid down to a think syrup and then plated them with that and toasted pistachios.
Oh my goodness that sounds DIVINE.
Such a lovely dessert.
sounds wonderful, but I have a somewhat serious concern. I’m not a big fan of pears – texture thing – is a poached pear not as “texture-y”? If so, I’m up to try it out.
They are softer than fresh pears, and the longer you poach them the softer they will get. They still have that sort of semi-grainy feel that is inherent to pears, but the overall texture is different. If that still sounds objectionable, you could probably poach sliced apple the same way!
As someone who is also not a huge fan of pears due to texture issues, I find poached pears far more edible, though some of the grainy feel does remain.
These look absolutely beautiful! And tasty too. I must try them this summeR!
Another dessert that doesn’t involve baking, yay! I love poached pears but have never tried to make them myself.
I recently prepared this dessert, and it is even better than I expected it to be. Absolutely delicious and easy to prepare. A must indeed! I’m going to recommend it to all my friends.
I tried this over the weekend. I suspect my pears weren’t ripe enough, I had to poach them for 25 minutes to get them to the level of softness I wanted. They were amazingly good, and it’s a great way to get rid of wine I don’t want to drink!
What a fun coincidence. I read this passage in “A Clash of Kings” earlier this morning, and wondered if and when this would show up on this blog.
Another coincidence … I made a cranberry-honey poaching liquid for the pears that I cooked yesterday to go with a roast duck dinner. I poured a chocolate sauce over it and served it with a scoop of french vanilla ice cream. The idea was inspired by a bottle of cranberry melomel that I was gifted a while back.
When LJ is back up you can see it here.
http://a-boleyn.livejournal.com/121322.html
I daresay I saw the medieval version on the season 3 opener last week….. At least it LOOKED an awful lot like the picture in the cookbook!
We made these along with the Aurochs (well, we took roastbeef) and Leeks and the Beans-and-Bacon-Soup (medieval) from the book.
The pears are unbelievable and looked absolutely like the pic in the book. The meat and the vegetables were awesome, the meat very soft and the vegetables wonderful spicy.
Our Inn at the Crossroads meal (on New Years Eve) was such a success that we will go ahead and make more of these on other holidays.
Thanks for the wonderful recipes! :)