Simmered Pears in Red Wine.

Winter side dish or dessert.
Serves: 2
Difficulty: Easy
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
- 8 firm cooking/dessert pears (in Holland we use Gieser Wildeman or Saint Remy pears),
- bottle of red wine
- caster sugar ( I use 10 dessert spoons of sugar, but you can add more (or less) if you like)
- 2 cinnamon sticks,
- Rind of halve a lemon or 400 ml. orange juice

Method:

1. Peel the pears, leave the stem and don’t cut them (if you want, you can slice the bottoms off to help them to stand up easily in the pan or when served).

2. Pour the wine into a large saucepan. Stir in the sugar. Put the pears into the pan and add the orange juice and cinnamon sticks. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat to a simmer. Put a lid on and cook for 45 minutes or so (Gieser Wildeman or Saint Remy pears take longer – 90 minutes or so), until beautiful red and soft but still retaining their shape.

3. When you eat them as a side dish, eat them hot!(Delicious with roasted potatoes) If you want to use them for dessert, let them cool in the liquid. Serve with cream, or mascarpone, or just plain vanilla ice-cream and some port-wine or some of the liquid

Enjoy!

Tip: you can store these pears in your freezer (store them in a container with the liquid)
Tip2: Don’t throw away the liquid….it’s very tasty and you can drink it or use it as a sauce