Poached pear with Cashel blue cheese and pistachio brittle

In the previous post I described pistachio brittle. This was for the pear/blue cheese dessert at this event.  We bought the cheese at Scardellos (of course), where we also took some of the Stellekaya wines for the hard working staff there to try.

This is the recipe for making the dish, illustrated below.

This is a relatively simple dish to make, but has a great wow factor.

Ingredients (serves 12)

6 bosc pears peeled, quartered and cored

3 cups sugar

2 cups red wine

4 oz Cashel blue cheese

8 oz crushed pistachio brittle (about 1/3 of the recipe from the previous posting)

Method

In a 4 quart pan, dissolve the sugar in the red wine and bring to a simmer. Add the pears and ensure that they are well coated. Simmer for 90 minutes stirring every so often to make sure all pears are covered. The pear should turn a deep purple on the surface.

When the pears are cooked and the liquid is syrupy, take the pears off heat and reserve the syrup. Cut 12 of the pear quarters into small cubes (1/3 inch). Fan the other 12 quarters.

Lay the fanned quarter on the plate, make a tower with the pear cubes, the cheese and top with a little brittle.

Spoon sone syrup onto the plate and serve.