Twice-cooked Pears with Ginger and Star Anise

Ready in 40 minutes, plus chilling Serves 6-8, 1 pear per person

3 cups white wine, e.g. riesling 1½ cups sugar

75g piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

5 whole star anise

1 vanilla pod, split

3 strips lemon rind, peeled with a vegetable peeler

6-8 long pears, e.g. beurre bosc, with stems attached FIVE-SPICE HONEY CREAM

1 cup Greek-style yoghurt

½ cup sour cream

Rind of 1 lemon, finely zested

½ tsp ground five-spice

2 Tbsp honey

In a saucepan that will hold all the pears upright in the bottom, heat together wine, sugar, ginger, star anise, vanilla pod and lemon peel, stirring until sugar has fully dissolved. Peel pears, leaving stems intact. Add pears to syrup, placing them upright in the pot — the syrup probably won’t cover them fully. Return to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Cool in syrup. Pears can be prepared and stored in their syrup for several days in the fridge. Stir ingredients for five-spice honey cream together in a small serving bowl. If not using within an hour, cover and chill. When ready to serve, heat oven to 200C. Lift pears out of syrup and arrange upright in a shallow baking dish lined with baking paper (slice a little flesh off the bottom if the pears won’t stand straight). Bring syrup back to the boil in a saucepan and cook over high heat until reduced by half, about 15-20 minutes.

Brush some syrup over pears and place in oven for 15-20 minutes, brushing with syrup two or three times during this final cooking stage to give them a rich, burnished glaze. Serve pears with reduced syrup and pieces of cooked ginger, (discarding other spices or leaving as a garnish) and accompany with the fivespice honey cream.

ANNABEL SAYS: Simmering the pears first and finishing them in an oven to lightly caramelise produces a really rich, flavoursome result.