Pears in red wine

Delicious, a bit aristocratic and elegant, so easy to do. It looks gorgeous, tastes surprisingly. Just perfect romantic dessert with some erotic hint:-)

4 to 6 ripe pears with stems

fresh juice from 1 lemon
1 bottle of red semisweet wine

1/2 cup muscovado sugar
6 slices of peeled fresh ginger
10 whole black peppercorns

1 piece of star anis

Mint for decorations

1) Peel the pears, leaving their stems intact, and cut a thin slice from bottom of each to enable pear to stand upright when served. Slice ginger.

2)In a pot (large enough to hold the pears either laying on their sides), lay pears on their sides, add red wine, sugar, lemon juice, ginger slices, star anise and peppercorns in poaching liquid bring just to a boil, turn down the heat so the pears just gently simmer. 

3)Cover pan with a lid, turn the pears occasionally, approximately 25 to 40 minutes or until pears are tender. When done, carefully transfer pears with a slotted spoon to their serving dishes.

4) Boil down the poaching liquid until 1/3 of it is left. Remove from heat, strain, throw away ginger slices, anise and peppercorns and pour the sauce over pears. Decorate neatly with mint leaves. You may also serve it with vanilla ice-cream.

Enjoy!

It is so tempting, that those little fingers could not resist touching the forbidden dessert:-)

NOTE: The rest of sauce pour into a jar and refrigerate up to 2 weeks. You can use it as fancy fruit salad or ice-cream sauce.