Saucy Spiced Pears Recipes

Steps:

• Drain pears, reserving syrup; set the pears aside. In a small saucepan, combine the syrup, brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add pears and simmer for about 5 minutes more or until heated through.

Steps:

• In a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet, combine the first nine ingredients and, if desired, cayenne. Cook over medium-high heat until butter is melted, 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally., Add pears; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook, uncovered, until sauce is slightly thickened and pears are crisp-tender, 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly. If desired, top with mint.

Steps:

• Combine the apples, pears, lemon juice, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/4 cup water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the apples and pears are very soft but still a bit chunky, 15 to 20 minutes. Taste the mixture and add the remaining tablespoon of sugar if desired.
• Remove the sauce from the heat and stir a few times until the sauce is well combined with small chunks. Cool to room temperature. Remove the cinnamon sticks and serve. (For a smoother sauce, remove from heat, remove the cinnamon sticks and then whisk the mixture until smooth before cooling.)

Steps:

• In a pan big enough to hold the pears snugly, tip in all the ingredients except the pears. Half fill the pan with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 mins to infuse, drop in pears, cover and gently poach for about 30 mins until soft. Turn off the heat and set aside. The pears can be poached up to 2 days ahead and kept in the poaching syrup in the fridge.
• To make the chocolate sauce, tip the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream, milk and cinnamon to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted. To serve, drain the pears and, holding them by the stem, dip them in the chocolate sauce to completely cover. Serve each pear with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Steps:

• Using melon baller and starting from bottom, core each pear. Cut thin slice off bottom of each pear to make level.
• Stir sugar and 1/4 cup water in heavy large saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and boil until syrup is deep amber color, brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush and swirling pan occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat; whisk in butter, then 2 tablespoons water.
• Stand pears in caramel sauce in saucepan. Sprinkle cinnamon over. Cover and cook over low heat 10 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with ras-el-hanout. Cover and continue to cook until pears are tender, occasionally spooning caramel sauce over pears and shaking pan so pears don't stick, about 15 minutes. Arrange orange slices around pears; spoon caramel sauce over. Cover and simmer until orange slices soften, about 5 minutes.
• Place orange slices on plates. Stand pears atop orange slices. Spoon caramel sauce over and sprinkle with almonds. Serve warm or at room temperature.
• *A Moroccan spice blend available at some specialty foods stores and Middle Eastern markets, and by mail from The Spice House (312-274-0378; thespicehouse.com).

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease two 8x5x3-inch loaf pans.
• Combine flour, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
• Combine pears, brown sugar, raisins, vegetable oil, white sugar, apple cider, eggs, and vanilla in a separate bowl; blend well. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Pour batter evenly into the prepared loaf pans.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of each loaf comes out clean, 65 to 70 minutes. Cool in the loaf pans before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Steps:

• Core the pears and set inside a baking dish. An old fashioned peeler with the pointy tip works well for this.
• Combine the craisins, walnuts and orange peel. Set aside.
• In a saucepan, combine the rest of the ingredients over medium-low heat for 2-5 minutes or until combined and bubbly.
• Take a pinch of your craisin mix and stuff into bottom of each pear. Stir in the rest of the craisin mix into your bubbly sauce.
• Ladle the hot sauce into each pear.
• Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven till the pears are soft. (Usually 30-40 minutes) Check on the pears halfway through. If they look like they are going to burn, cover with foil till the last 5 minutes.
• Let stand at least 5 minutes. Put each pear on a plate then ladle some of the escaped sauce over the pear and drizzle around the plate for presentation.
• Tip: If you don't have any orange peel handy, substitute orange juice for the water.
• Tip: The sauce will escape through the bottom. Don't sweat it. Just ladle it back in after baking. The nut/craisin mix in the bottom helps with this.
• Tip: I know the baking time is a little ambiguous, be we move around a lot and I've made this in several different ovens. It's hard to "kill" these. Just test the pears with a fork. When the tops get that pretty caramel color and they're soft, they're ready.
• Tip: This works with any pear, just adjust the baking time depending on the firmness of the pear. Firmer=longer. I like Bartlett pears because they're fat and stand up on their own better.

Steps:

• Slice pears into quarters; remove and discard seeds and cores.
• Melt 1 teaspoon butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add pears and cook, turning occasionally, until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.
• Combine brown sugar, water, and remaining 1 teaspoon butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until boiling. Remove from the heat and let sit until thickened slightly, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Place pear quarters on 4 small plates. Pour brown sugar sauce over pears and top with whipped cream.

Steps:

• Peel the pears and put in a medium bowl with the lemon juice and enough water to cover to prevent browning.
• In a large heavy saucepan, combine the water, sugar, anise, cloves, and cinnamon stick.
• Stir the sugar mixture over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
• Add the wine, port, ginger, and about 2/3 of the orange zest (the remainder will be used for garnish). Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer.
• Add the pears. Place the lid on the pot so that steam can escape and simmer until the pears are tender when pierced with a toothpick. This will take about 25 minutes. Make sure that you turn the pears so that all sides are evenly cooked.
• Remove the pears from the cooking liquid with a slotted spoon. Transfer them to a plate, cover with plastic wrap, cool in the refrigerator about 2 hours.
• Pour the cooking liquid through a sieve to remove the cloves, zest, and other particulate. Return to sauce pan. At this point you can refrigerate the liquid if you plan on serving it within a day or 2.
• To reduce the sauce, simmer until desired consistency is achieved (about 30 minutes to my taste). Taste as you are cooking it to adjust sweetness to your taste (I don't like things that sweet, so the sauce is tart when made according to the recipe).
• Serve each pear with a little sauce drizzled over and sprinkle with remaining zest. Mint & dark chocolate also make good garnishes.

Steps:

• Cut each pear into 8 wedges. Toss the pears and the lemon juice in a non-reactive medium bowl, and set aside.
• Melt the unsalted butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pears and about 1/2 cup water. Sprinkle with the sugar. Simmer until the water has evaporated and the pears turn golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Serve warm with hot cereal.