I love whole poached pears… they’re such a simple yet elegant dessert. Pair with a scoop of ice cream, dollop of cream or a spoonful of yoghurt - heaven! The problem has always been, I’ve never been happy with the results when I’ve done it in the Thermomix bowl - they end up getting mushy and broken up, not quite the stylish picture we were going for. That was until I could fit a whole casserole dish in my Thermomix Varoma… complete game-changer! Now I can cook delicate dishes like poached fruit, custards, cheesecake, puddings, fish, prawns etc with the blades far away. The steam cooking ensures foolproof, perfect results every time, and it’s such a healthy way to cook - all wins! But to fit said casserole dish into your Thermomix Varoma you need our brand new MaxiSteam Varoma Extender (click here to check it out!).
The red wine gives that beautiful red hue, but you can follow this exact same recipe using apple juice for a kid-friendly version.
Serves 4
+ dairy free
+ nut free
+ egg free
+ gluten free
+ vegetarian
+ vegan
Ingredients
4 brown pears, peeled and halved75g brown sugar
3 whole star anise
1 vanilla bean
500g red wine
Method
- Fill TM bowl with 750g water. Place lid on, then position both Varoma lower and upper steaming tray on top. Position MaxiSteam Varoma Extender on top, and then place casserole dish on top (see video above).
- Fill casserole dish with pears, then add sugar, star anise, vanilla bean and red wine. If you want even colouring on your pears, submerge in the wine as much as possible. Top with Varoma steaming lid.
- Steam for 50 minutes, Varoma temperature, speed 3. If you couldn’t fully submerge the pears, you can stop the cooking roughly half way and rotate the pears in the liquid - this is ONLY to get the perfectly even colour, it’s not necessary for even cooking.
Your poached pears are ready! You can serve them straight away, but I think the flavour is better once they’re cold and have marinated longer in the poaching liquid. Once cool enough to handle, I’d remove the entire casserole dish and put in the fridge until ready to serve. You’ll also notice the red colour intensifies significantly after this extra time. I like to serve the pears with a couple of spoonfuls of the red wine sauce, but you’ll most likely have leftovers - poor into a glass jar and store in the fridge for the next batch!
