Red Wine-Poached Pears with Chocolate and Culinary Fairy Dust

This was the dessert course that I served at my Autumn's Bounty collaborative Happy Hour with Anni of The Quail & Olive and Lenora of Big Sur Vineyards.

Unfortunately it was a swing and a miss in that I didn't poach the pears long enough and they were difficult to eat. But the flavor, I am told, was still great. So, I'll share this with the proviso that you cook the pears until they are actually fork tender!

As for the title - culinary fairy dust - that's how I have always described fennel pollen. It adds something magical to any dish. I have folded it into my La Fée Verte Olive Oil Shortbread, added it to my Roasted Fennel & Cannellini Dip, and garnished my End-of-Days Bloody Orange Mary with it. It's magic I tell you. Magic! And Anni carries it in the pantry section of her shop.

There seem to be two distinct camps: one who thinks red wine and chocolate are a darling pair; one who thinks that those should never be served together. I fall firmly in the first camp, with the proviso that I mean good, dark chocolate with a high percentage of cacao solids and good red wine. You need the flavor intensities to be equally matched or one is going to overpower the other.

Ingredients

serves 8

For the Pears

(you should poach the pears the day before you want to serve them)

• 8 Seckel pears

• 2 cup red wine

• 1/2 cup organic granulated sugar

• 2 to 3 slices of dehydrated oranges

• 2 to 3 cinnamon sticksat The Quail & Olive

For the Sauce

• 1 cup organic heavy whipping cream

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate (minimum of 64% cacao though I prefer 75%), chopped or use chips

• 1 Tablespoon Blood Orange Olive Oil (at The Quail & Olive)

• 1 to 2 Tablespoons red wine

For Serving

• Blood Orange Olive Oil (at The Quail & Olive)

• Chocolate Balsamic Vinegar (at The Quail & Olive)

• fennel pollen

Procedure

For the Pears

Peel the pears, but leave the stem intact. That makes it easier to pick them up without damaging the flesh and it also looks cool! Pour the red wine into a saucepan and add the sugar. Heat and swirl the pan until the sugar is dissolved.

Place the pears in the red wine and simmer gently at a very low heat for 25 to 30 minutes. You want the pears softened, but still retaining their shape. Once softened, remove from the heat, and leave the pears in the poaching liquid. You will need to turn the pears if they are not completely submerged in the liquid. I probably turned mine 4 times while they cooled. Then I refrigerated them - in the liquid - overnight.

Before serving, remove them from the liquid and bring them to room temperature. They should look like the pears above!

For the Sauce

Combine the cream, wine, and olive oil in a small saucepan. Heat over medium high heat until the cream begins to steam and small bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Pour in the chocolate and swirl until it's completely submerged. Let stand for 3 minutes. Whisk until a smooth sauce forms.

To Serve

Pour a small pool of chocolate into the bottom of a shallow bowl. Drizzle the chocolate with the Blood Orange Olive Oil. Place your poached pear in the center.

Drizzle with the Chocolate Balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with fennel pollen.

Serve immediately.

We paired this with the 2022 Sparkling Rosé from Big Sur Vineyards. The wine pours a pale salmon hue with aromas of berries, stone fruits, and a hint of garden roses. Crafted in the méthode champenoise, this wine is as tasty as it is pretty.