Try saying that 10 times fast.

No seriously. Pears are really good poached in red wine with sugar, so I thought, why not just poach them in port and cut out the middleman? Er, middleingredient? So. I think poached pears are one of the most simply elegant desserts, not to mention delicious. While I wouldn't classify them as hard to make, you do have to peel the pears and you have to fiddle around with them some. However, they are not too easy to screw up, which is always a plus. We served them with a choice of regular vanilla ice cream or goat-milk vanilla ice cream, which has 2 main differences from regular ice cream: it is kind of tangy, and it costs twice as much.

Some notes. I used red seckel pears, which I think work the best taste- and texture-wise. But you can use any type of pear. In general a red pear works better than a green one, in my opinion. Also they are a bit smaller so they work better as a single serving. As for the port, I used ruby port that was like 8 bucks/bottle from Trader Joes and that worked well. I recommend you choose ruby over tawny in this recipe, but if you have leftover port or a gift port or some old stuff lying around, it doesn't really matter and you should feel free to use it. As well, if you have only some port but some red wine, feel free to mix it up but add a little sugar to account for the wine's lack of sugar.






Pears Poached In Port
I'm going to explain how to make 4 pears but you can just add a little more of everything to make more. You should make 1 per person.

Ingredients:

• 4 whole red seckel pears, not super ripe- just shy of ripe is best, so they are still quite firm
  
• about 2 cups of port
  
• about 2 cups of water
• a cinnamon stick OR a smallish chunk of fresh ginger
• about 5 peppercorns
• the zest of 1 orange or 1 lemon

Method:

• Peel the pears, but leave the stem on the top (if there is one.) Use a melon baller to core out the bottom stemmy brown thingy (or a knife if you don't have a melon baller- but wow is it easier with the baller.) Cut a small slice off the bottom of the pear so it stands up.
• Put the pears into a pot where they fit pretty tightly but are not super touchy touchy (they can be a little touching.) Add all of the other ingredients. Hopefully the liquid will cover the pears; if it doesn't, add equal parts port and water until the pears are submerged in liquid. If your pot is the right size the liquid will cover, but if your pot is too big you will need more liquid.
• Heat the pears over medium heat in the liquid just until it starts to bubble. Cover and turn the heat to low and poach the pears in simmering water for about 20 minutes. Check them by putting a sharp knife in and seeing if they are tender. They shouldn't take more than about 20-30 minutes.
• Once pears are tender, remove from pot and put on a plate on the counter to cool. Taste liquid and see how sweet it is. If it's not sweet enough (it should be dessert-y sweet, not candy sweet) then add a couple tablespoons of sugar.
• Return liquid to the stove and cook it over medium heat, not stirring but occasionally swirling the pan, until the liquid has reduced. It doesn't need to be syrupy and thick, per se, but it needs to reduce to the point at which it tastes sweet and yummy and is a nice dark even color. This will probably take around 20-30 minutes.
• Strain the syrup and pour it back into the pan. Put the cooled pears back into the pan and put it all in the fridge, uncovered, until cool, about an hour. When cool, cover with plastic wrap. They will keep for a day or two like this if you want to make them ahead.
• To serve, put a pear on each plate (I like to use shallow white bowls) and pour syrup over it. Serve with ice cream.