| Pears with Port and Blue Cheese* |
From "DIY Cooking"
episode COK-104F |
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Pears with Port and Blue Cheese
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Recipe courtesy Michael Lomanaco. All rights reserved, 1997. Ingredients: 3 cups water
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup good port
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 or 3 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
4 firm Bartlett pears
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 pound Gorgonzola or other blue cheese
1/2 pound mesclun or your choice of fresh young salad greens
1/2 pound thinly sliced prosciutto, Westphalian or real Virginia ham, properly cooked and cooled Bring water, dry white wine, port, sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves and red-pepper flakes to a boil in a pot just large enough to hold the pears. Lower the heat and simmer 5 to 10 minutes. While the poaching liquid is cooking, peel but do not core the pears. (Use a vegetable peeler for the neatest job with the least waste.) Poach the pears, uncovered, 20 minutes, or until they are just tender to the tip of a knife. Remove from the heat, and cool the pears in the liquid another 20 minutes. You can refrigerate them (still in the liquid) for later use. When ready to serve, remove pears from liquid, cut in half lengthwise, and remove core with a teaspoon. With a sharp knife, slice each pear half into 1/4"-thick lengthwise slices, leaving the neck of the pear unsliced so that you can "fan" the pear half on its serving plate. Make a vinaigrette by combining extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and crumbled Gorgonzola or other blue cheese in a bowl. Arrange meschun or your choice of young salad greens on a plate and drizzle with vinaigrette. On each serving plate, place a pear half at the 6 o'clock position, fanning it across the plate. Divide the prosciutto into 8 portions and drape one portion across the middle of each serving plate, covering the top half of the pear fan. Garnish each plate with 1/4 cup dressed greens, placed in the 12 o'clock position, above the prosciutto. Yield: 8 servings Chef's note: The way I remove the core from poached pears is to use a melon baller to get the center out of the pear. It gives you a nice perfect circle. You can also core the pears before you poach them and poach them in halves. Web site resources for Poaching: Poached Scrod with Herbs and Warm Vinaigrette from Food TV.com Zabaglione with Quick Poached Pears from Food TV.com Pears in Red Wine with a Fresh Cheese Filling from Food TV.com Fresh Poached Pear, Toasted Pecan and Bleu Cheese Salad with Pear Vinaigrette We at DIY believe all of the recipes from DIY Cooking are accurate and reliable, but since we have not tested them personally, we can claim no responsibility if the desired results are not achieved.
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