My sister-in-law Danette, has a long standing tradition for doing brunch on Christmas day. Last year, we were fortunate enough to have her and her family come out to New York for Christmas. So, as a result, my family got introduced to brunch on Christmas day. We liked it so much that we decided to make it a new tradition in our family as well. So I got busy baking and cooking. We had homemade cinnamon rolls, pumpkin bread pudding, baked apples, a chicken wreath and poached pears. The poached pears were a new add this year and I do believe will replace the baked apples for years to follow. They were incredibly easy and so delicious. It was a "mmm" every bite good. I pulled a bunch of recipes off line and put in a little of this and that, and honestly, I don't think you can mess these little beauties up. I didn't measure anything, but did a guesstimate (yes, it is a word, look it up). I loved the festive red color too. I will be making them not just at holiday time too, because they were that good!
POACHED PEARS
Ingredients:
- 6-8 ripe but firm pears, peeled, halved and cored (or can peel and leave whole increasing cooking time, leave stem on)
- 2 cups dry red wine
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup sugar
- couple peels or orange zest (no pith)
- cinnamon stick or tsp ground cinnamon
- 3-4 cloves.
A few hints:
- Can substitute cranberry or red grape juice for red wine, if prefer .
- If doing whole pears, take an unused plastic scrubby and go over peel strokes to make it smooth.
- Can also add 1/2 cup or so of orange juice.
- Can add vanilla beans if desire.
- Can also serve along a rich dessert to lighten it up.
- And finally, if you have time you can simmer away that delicious cooking liquid and let thicken into a topping sauce to go over finished pears.
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