Poached Pears with Ginger Caramel Sauce

(Serves 4)

Ingredients Poached Pears

• 1 litre water
• 330 g caster sugar
• 4 pears, peeled. (Beurre Bosc if available)
• 150 g scatel raisins, or currants
• 2 cinnamon sticks, slightly broken

Ingredients Ginger Caramel Sauce

• 1 400g can sweetened condensed milk
• 200g (1 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
• 250mls (1 cup) thin cream
• 4cm piece fresh ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, reduce heat and hold at a simmer.

Add pears to syrup with raisins or currants and cinnamon. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, turning pears occasionally, or until tender. Remove pears & set aside. Boil syrup for 10 minutes or until thickened slightly. Remove from heat, return pears to syrup and set aside for 1 hour until cool.

To make sauce, combine the condensed milk, brown sugar and cream in a medium saucepan. Use a whisk to stir over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high, bring to boil and cook for 3 minutes, stirring, until sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon. Pour into a bowl, stir in the ginger and vanilla. Stand for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

To serve, use a slotted spoon to remove ginger pieces from sauce. Place pears in individual serving bowls with some of the raisins or currants, cinnamon and poaching syrup, and then spoon the ginger caramel sauce over.