To prepare the poached pears, start by peeling them whole with a vegetable peeler (1), taking care to leave the stem attached (2). Now make the syrup: pour the water and the sugar into a saucepan (3).

To make the wine syrup, in a 3-quart saucepan (or the size that holds your pears snuggly on their sides but not pressed together), combine the sugar, water, wine, and lemon zest. Bring to a boil over ...

If baking is your thing, the holidays are all about the dessert. But for the rest of us, dessert is sometimes the unfortunate victim of the 24-hour clock. There is just never enough time to get it all ...

Method: Trim the base of the pears so they will stand upright. Place in a small saucepan (they should fit snugly). Sprinkle caster sugar over the pears, then pour wine over to cover (water may be ...

There is no in-between with pears. Underripe and the late-fall fruit is hard, astringent and tasteless; overripe and it's gritty and bland. At peak, a good pear is one of the finest fruits, perfumed, ...

One of the most memorable restaurant dishes I've tasted was a poached salmon stuffed with black truffles and served with a beurre blanc sauce. The salmon was so moist it was silky. Poaching may not be ...

DECEMBER is a month for feasting -- which is not necessarily to say gorging, though it sometimes seems like it. Eating well is not the same thing as stuffing yourself and eating sensibly is not the ...

The fruit softens gently as it simmers, soaking up the deep flavours of the wine and spices until it turns glossy, The origins of poached pears date back centuries, to a time when cooks needed ways to ...