TASTY TUESDAY POACHED PEARS

Sometimes the simplest things are just the best and I think that poaching fruit is so simple and just so darned good.  By taking out a lot of the sugar calories (the added sugar) you still end up with a really good way to end the meal.  I grew up eating lots of fruit and lots of dried fruit so fruit for dessert is something we really enjoy.  All you need is poaching liquid and to that liquid you will need to add whatever combination of spices and herbs you like, sugar and water.  That's it.

The classic way to poach fruit is to use wine, that's how you get those beautiful pears that look like red candy.  I chose to start with some Constant Comment tea....

Before pouring in the hot water I added one half of a vanilla bean, some whole cloves and some wide orange rind slices. Use whatever combination sounds good to you.

The last liquid I added was a 12 ounce bottle of hard pear cider, you could use apple juice, wine, etc. whatever sounds good to you. Finally, I added 1/2 cup of the Truvia(it has 75% fewer calories than regular brown sugar) brown sugar blend and stirred it to mix everything.

Hubby loves pears (me too) and I like to use them for poaching because all you  have to do is to peel them and they are ready to go.  Chose pears that are ripe but still firm.  I chose red pears.

Once my tea had steeped I mixed all the liquid and spices together, placed in a pot and then took some parchment paper, folded it in half and cut out a steam circle and then cut around so that it fit in the pot.  I needed more liquid so I removed the parchment, added some water and put the parchment back on and poached the pears for 30 minutes.  They were perfect and my kitchen smelled so good.

When the pears were done I removed them to a plate and then using a slotted spoon removed the orange, vanilla bean and the cloves, turned up the heat and reduced the liquid and it will become very syrup like.  Turn off the heat and let it cool.

I placed the pears in a footed glass and just before serving, spooned some of the poaching syrup over the fruit. As I mentioned earlier, this is so simple but oh so good and I do not feel it needs any further embellishment but you could add some whipped cream or a little vanilla Greek yogurt.  I like it just the way it is and Hubby does too.

Thank you for stopping by.