Pepper Poached Pears

Servings: 4
Ingredients:

1 1/2 c  Water
1 1/2 c  White wine
1 c  Sugar
1 tb Black peppercorns
3/4    Inch piece fresh ginger,
-sliced
1    Cinnamon stick
2    Cloves
1/8 ts Salt
pn Crushed red pepper
1 ts Wine vinegar
4    Firm pears, peeled, halved
-and cored
1/2 ts Vanilla

Ran across this recipe in an article in the Chron about weird taste
combinations and thought it worth passing on. (Never mind the
comments.) BTW, this is one of the first recipes I entered using
WordStar 7.0. When I ran the spell checker on it WS didn’t recognize
‘quart’ or ‘vinegar’ as words!!!! Amazing. ‘Nam Yuey’ I can
understand, but ‘VINEGAR’?

These are wonderful served over ice cream or with pound cake. Combine
the water, wine, sugar, peppercorns, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt,
red pepper and vinegar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil.

Add the pears and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes,
until the pears are tender, turning every few minutes so they cook
evenly.

When the pears are uniformly tender, remove to a plate. Reduce the
liquid in the pan by half. Strain into a bowl. Add the vanilla and
return the pears to the liquid to cool.

Serve at room temperature.

Serves 4.

San Francisco Chronicle, date unknown.

Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; May 19 1992.