Spiced Red Wine-Poached Pears (and a giveaway!)

Believe me when I say "I never win anything." Seriously. Even as a small child at the fair I never won the big stuffed animal by throwing darts at balloons. Hey, it's pretty crushing when you're 7 years old. So imagine my suprise when I came home from work one day to see a large envelope on my front steps. I didn't order a package... did my husband? Wait, it's addressed to ME. So I tear into the package and read a letter that basically says, "Congratulations. You are the winner of an autographed Ellie Kreiger, The Food You Crave, cookbook!"

Whaaaa? How?

I guess I filled out a survey awhile back about yogurt and the random prize was this book. How strange! I don't even remember filling out the survey....




But it was addressed to me so I'm keeping it! Pretty cool, eh?




So I decided I had better dive in and treat myself to a new dish from my prize. And that's when I landed on Spiced Red Wine-Poached Pears. I prefer to call them Drunken Pears, but I guess Ellie didn't like that name...

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dry red wine, such as Cabernet or Merlot
• 1/4 cup plus 1 TBSP sugar
• Juice of 1 orange (about 1/2 cup)
• One 1x3 inch strip orange zest
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 whole cloves,
• 4 firm, ripe pears

Directions:

• In a saucepan, combine the wine, sugar, orange juice and zest, cinnamon stick and cloves. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 5 minutes.
• While liquid is simmering, peel the pears, leaving the stem intact adn being careful not to blemish the flesh of the pears.
• Slice off 1/2 inch the bottom of the pears so that they can stand.
• Gently lay the pears down in the paching liquid, cover and simmer, turning them every 5 minutes to ensure even color, until they are cooked but still firm (15-20 minutes).
• Gently transfer the pears to a serving dish, keeping them upright. Let them cool to room temperature.
• Meanwhile, with a slotted spoon, remove the orange zest, cloves, and cinnamon stick from the poaching liquid.
• Turn the heat up to medium-high and reduce the liquid until it is thick and slightly syrupy, about 15 minutes.
• Drizzle each pear with 2 TBSP of the warm syrup and serve.

Aren't they beautiful? And they're just as delicious as they look. In fact, they were so good that I thought I should do more than just share this one recipe with you. I think you should have a copy of Ellie's The Food You Crave cookbook (sorry, your book isn't signed)!

So here we are, my first giveaway on The Rookie Chef. All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what your favorite cookbook is and why.

I will pick a random winner using http://random.org/ on Friday morning. All comments left before Friday at 8 am will be eligible to win.

Yay for winning! It's fun to win something now and then, isn't it??