Poached Pears with Bitter Chocolate Sauce

by slowthinker

Prep time: 0:05 Overall time: 0:20

Servings: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

Enough red wine to cover the pears (usually 500ml)
Sugar (add to taste, I recommend 80g per 500ml of wine)
4 pears, williams work well.
150g of chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
150 ml cream
25g butter
40ml perry (pear liquer) if you can't get this calvados would probably work, though I've never tried

INSTRUCTIONS

First of all peel the pears, though leave the stalks on, and cut away a small piece at the base of the pear. Place the sugar, red wine, and pears in a saucepan, bring to the simmer, and leave until the pears are soft. Add the butter, alcohol, chocolate, and cream into a bain marie and heat gently until the sauce has amalgamated.

Drizzle the thick chocolate sauce on the plates (be as artistic as you like), then place 1 pear on each plate cut side down, and drizzle with a little more sauce.

CHEF COMMENTS

You need to make sure the pears are ripe, if they aren't it takes far longer to poach them adequately.

Instead of chocolate sauce it is also possible to reduce down to red wine the pears were poached in to a thick consistency. This can be used as the sole sauce, or can be used in addition to the chocolate sauce, though personally I prefer a home made vanilla ice cream with the pear and chocolate sauce.

* If you can't get this calvados would probably work, though I've never tried.

Tagged: desserts, fruit add tags

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