pears in red wine

2019-11-26

A delicious Belgian / French recipe.

If you like spiced wine, mulled wine or gluehwein to use the original German/Austrian name, you'll probably like this too. It doesn't matter much which red wine you choose for this, as long as it's one that you like for drinking that isn't too sweet. You can buy the gluehwein sachets online or you can make it yourself with the spices you probably already have in your kitchen.

The pickling spices can be quite dominant. Even a teaspoon will alter the wine flavor noticeably. I like their effect with moderation. I don't leave them in more than 2 minutes because they will overpower the other flavors completely. The spice ball makes it easy to control that.

Add the pears for a delicious dessert.
Only use pears that are not fully ripe. Stewing very ripe pears will make them mushy. If you like these red wine pears, use them also to make pies or tarts.

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 4-8 servings:

4 slightly unripe pears
1 bottle red wine, good drinking quality
1 cinnamon stick

optional:

1 cup apple cider / orange juice
1 laurel leaf
2 whole cloves
sugar/honey
...

Pic1: pears in red wine

Directions

Peel and halve the pears. Use a melon-baller to remove the core.
If you want to use the pears to make a pear pie, slice them in wedges.
I did a combination of both.
Combine pears and wine in a 2-qt. saucepan.
Warm the wine over low-medium heat.
When at near-boil, reduce heat.
Add the cinnamon stick and spice-ball to the wine.
Cover and simmer the pears for 15-25 minutes until soft enough to easily be cut with a spoon.
This will depend on ripeness, thickness and type of pear.
Remove the pickling spices after a few minutes, or they will dominate too much.
Leave or remove cinnamon to your taste.
If there is a lot of foam, scoop it off.
Sweeten with honey or sugar to taste.
Don't make it sickeningly sweet.

Serving suggestions:

Drink some of the mulled wine warm if you like, but leave enough to keep the pears covered.
Serve the pear warm with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy.

Alternatively:

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2-3 hrs.
Serve the pear chilled with some of the wine. (Pic1) Enjoy.
Optional:
- Spiral-slice the pear to make it look fancier. (Pic9)
- Make a pie or tart with the pears. (Pic10)

Pic2: peel, cut, core
Pic3: halved and sliced
Pic4: add red wine

Pic5: spices
Pic6: simmer
Pic7: remove foam

Pic8: all done
Pic9: fancy cut — internet picture
Pic10: tart — internet picture

turkey soup with red wine pears

2019-11-26

More experimentation.

I liked the pears & turkey soup, so of course I had to try this one too. Where the regular pears compliment the turkey soup sweetness in a nice harmony, the red wine pears contrast and clash with it discordantly.

I liked the mulled wine in turkey soup as long as it didn't exceed a 1/5 ratio, but I couldn't appreciate the red wine pears in turkey soup at all.

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for each serving:

red wine pears
turkey soup

Directions

1. turkey soup with mulled wine (Pic11+13)
I liked this one, on a 1/5 ratio. Anything more and the wine became too dominant.

Pour 1/2 cup mulled wine in a bowl.
Add 2 cups of turkey broth.
A few veggies are OK, but not very many.
Mix.
Adjust seasoning.
Serve and enjoy.

2. red wine pears in turkey soup (Pic14+15)
Not so much. The flavor of the red wine pears was too strong to my liking over the soup. I like the red wine pears in their own mulled wine, but here they completely overpower the turkey soup. I wonder if I would blend just one pear quarter into a bowl of soup. would it be more palatable?

Scoop some red wine pears in a bowl.
Add turkey broth without vegetables.
Serve and enjoy. I didn't much, but maybe you will like it.

Pic11: turkey vegetable soup
Pic12: mulled wine
Pic13: add turkey soup

Pic11: turkey vegetable soup
Pic14: red wine pears
Pic15: add turkey broth

See also: Deming, NM gardens, animals and more and avemariasongs.org

See also: Deming, NM gardens, animals and more
and avemariasongs.org