Pears poached in red wine

When shopping on the weekend we found these beautiful little pears.  They were about half the size of a normal pear, and we thought it would be a good idea to poach them for dinner. This was really easy and spectacularly good.

1 pear per person, we cooked 7 for 5 people as they were small

Equal quantaties of red wine and water I used 2 cups of each

1 cup of sugar for 4 cups of liquid

1 cinimin stick

5 cardamon pods

1/4 cup of toasted almonds to serve

Peal the pears leaving whole and the stalk on the top. I sliced a little off the bottom of some of the pears so that they would stand upright for serving.

Mix all the ingredients in a deep sided pot and bring to a boil.  Add the pears and turn down to a simmer, there should be enough liquid to cover the pears, though they do tend to float.

Cook until a sharp knife slides easily into the pears, they should be cooked through and soft but not falling apart.

The pears will now have taken on a beatiful red purple colour as well as absorbing the flavours form the poaching liquid.

Take out the pears and place on the serving dish, to cool down.

Crank up the heat under the poaching liquid and simmer down to about 1/2 cup of syrup.  You really need to watch at the end as it can go too thick very quickly. Pour the syrup over the pears.

Just before serving sprinkle with toasted slivered almonds these not only look good, but add a crunchy texture to a soft desert.

This would be delicous with vanilla icecream, but as we did not have any we served it will vanilla greek yogurt and actually that was very good too.