Name: Pears Poached in Beaumes-de-Venise and Honey
Ingredients: honey; beaumes-de-venise wine; ripe pears; water

Pears Poached in Beaumes-de-Venise and Honey

Preparation info

Published 1996

CHEZ PANISSE

Berkeley, California

Combine the wine, water, and honey in a non-corroding saucepan and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, peel the pears neatly with a vegetable peeler, keeping the stem but removing the blossom end. Drop each pear into the simmering wine as you peel it, and lay a piece of parchment directly on the surface of the pears to keep them basted.
Cook at just under a simmer until the pears are barely tender when tested with a knife in the blossom end, about 10 to 40 minutes, depending on the pears.
Remove the pears to a container to cool in a single layer. Cook down the remaining syrup to about 3/4 of its original volume and cool separately. Add the pears when cool and chill, preferably overnight. Serve with créme fraîche and ossi dei morti or some other crisp cookie.