At this time of year most (non citrus) fruit can be rather disappointing, hard, dull, tasteless or watery, or an unlikely combination of all four. At the weekend I made Ren’s Rumtopf at the weekend and had spare pears and plums to use up. I often think that the window of time that a pear is perfect for is about 5 minutes; too early and they are hard and gritty, too late and they are squishy and starting to ferment. Surprisingly one of the pears left in the fruit bowl was perfect – ripe, soft, delicious and full of fragrant juice. I ate it whilst preparing its less perfect companions, the juice running down my chin and feeling only a vague twinge of guilt for not offering any to Ed.
I make no apology that the full name of this dish alliterates horribly and is a bit of a delicious mouthful to say. Port poached pears & plums with cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. Try saying that after several glasses of port!
Serve this in a crumble or as a porridge topping. I am sure that the cooking does evaporate most of the alcohol thus rendering this suitable for breakfast, if not it is Christmas time after all!
Recipe: Spiced Pears & Plums in Port
Ingredients
- 2 medium pears
- 4 plums
- 1 tbs water
- 1 espresso cup port
- 1 tbs sugar
- 2.5 cm / 1" cinnamon stick
- 5 cardamom pods
Instructions
- Peel, core and chop the pears into 2cm / ½” chunks. Halve the plums, remove the stones and chop into eights.
- Place all the ingredients into a pan, cover and simmer over a gentle heat for about 20 – 30 minutes or until all the fruit is soft.
- Using a slotted spoon remove the fruit, turn up the heat and allow the juice to thicken to a light syrup.
- Pour the syrup over the fruit and discard the spices.
This will keep in the fridge for up to a week.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake
Lovely looking fruit – and great non stodgy dessert for winter. I was going to say breakfast but if there’s booze in it then probably not!!
Charlotte @CharlotteKDiary
How gorgeous Helen – I will be making this very soon. A great way to use up the last bit of port in the bottle, too!
Helen
Thanks Charlotte,
You could approach it the other way and use it as an excuse to open a bottle of port, and then drink the remainder?
Charlotte @charlottekdiary
Now that is an even better idea!
Helen
;-)