Dessert Recipe: Poached Pears with Chilli and Balsamic

Readers who loved the Lemon Something French Thingy on a previous blog entry are in for a treat! Back by popular demand, it's Recipe of the Week and this week I'm pleased to present this pear recipe I prepared for a pair of parents - mine to be precise. Mamma et Pappa arrived yesterday and so, being the foodies that they are, I had to impress them with my culinary skills.

This recipe is invented by me. I am laying claim to it, so bugger off Nigella.

Poached Pears with Chilli and Balsamic
Serves 4

• 4 pears, or two pairs of pears, pared. I chose Conference Pears because they are long and slender and elegant.
• Cranberry juice
• Sugar
• Balsamic vinegar
• birds eye chilli (red)
• marscarpone

You'll notice that I haven't given any measurements. The correct measurement for all ingredients in this recipe is a bung.

Get a birds eye red chilli (I keep mine in the freezer and then bung it in some hot water to unfreeze it). You need to be careful here because you don't want your dessert to turn into a curry. I just got a pair of kitchen scissors and cut about a third of the chilli into tiny pieces and bunged them straight into the pan, sans seeds. Under no circumstances should you use sweet chilli sauce or cheat's chilli. That would be rank.

Carefully place the pears on their sides in the pan and bung in some cranberry juice. This bung would go halfway up the pear shaped bit of the pear.

Next, bung in some balsamic - not too much, it ain't chish and fips. Bung in some sugar (caster if poss.) and put the lid on the pan and give it a bit of a shake. I poured some of the juice over the pears so the top bits wouldn't miss out. Taste the juice just to make sure you haven't fucked it up. Too much chilli and it's a curry, too little and what's the point.....With it on a low heat, walk away and go and have your main course, which you should have prepared earlier.

When you're half way through your dinner and the conversation has turned to the political situation in Tibet, check on the pears. That way you won't look stupid if you can't contribute to the conversation.

Go back and change the subject, and don't forget to check on the pears again at some point.

When you reckon they're ready, dish the pears into bowls. If there's too much juice, put the heat up high and reduce it.

Serve with marscarpone cheese (try and find good quality marscarpone). I added a few rasberries as well. The sourness of the chilli and balsamic goes beautifully with the sweetness of the pear.

I used the remainder of the chilli the next day to make honey soy chilli prawns with bok choi.

Disclaimer:
1) picture not actually my pear.
2) may contain nuts