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Poached autumn fruits in spiced wine

This recipe demonstrates the technique of poaching. The exchange of flavours produces delicately spiced fruits in an aromatic jus which is delicious served cold or hot.

  • Serves (yield): 4
  • Preparation time: 20 minutes
  • Cooking time: 40 mins

Planning ahead:

This dish can be made a day in advance allowing the fruits to soak up more of the spiced wine flavour and colour.

Ingredients for the red wine jus:

  • 400ml red wine, cabernet sauvignon (*1)
  • 400g water 2 tsp Stevia (*2) (or 100g caster sugar)
  • 1tsp vanilla syrup (*3)
  • 6g ½ cinnamon stick
  • 1g pepper, black
  • 0.5g 2 bay leaves
  • 0.5g 2 cloves
  • 2 slices lemon, 1mm thick
  • 2 slices orange, 1mm thick

Ingredients for the Fruits:

  • 200g 2 quince, peeled, cored & cut into 4 segments
  • 140g 2 cox apple peeled & cut into 4 segments, cored
  • 400g 2 ripe pear (williams preferably), peeled & quartered
  • 150g blackberries
  • 4 Agen prunes (optional)

Method:

  1. In the large sauté pan on a high heat, bring the red wine to the boil for approximately 1 minute (*4);
  2. add the water and the remaining ingredients for the red wine jus and bring to a gentle simmer.
  3. Cook the Quince for approximately 25 minutes (barely simmering) (*5).
  4. Add the apple segments after 10 minutes, then add the pear and continue to simmer for 5 minutes.
  5. Take off the heat, add the blackberries and leave to cool to room temperature.
  6. Finally, add the Prunes and refrigerate.

To serve:

Arrange all the fruits, spices, red wine and cooking juices in a large dish, serve cold

Chef’s notes:

  • *1 Cooking Wine – My general rule about wine when cooking is not to use expensive wine, I don’t spend over £5 per bottle. I have seen some wonderful expensive Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Sauvignons murdered by being boiled! What you are looking for is a deep rich coloured Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Pinot Noir is usually too light and delicate.
  • *2 Stevia – Stevia is a naturally-sourced sugar substitute. I first started growing Stevia 8 years ago and found that it had the most super sweet leaves. This got me very excited and I began researching everything I could about this extraordinary plant, its chemical properties but most of all its culinary benefits. To taste it’s at least 10 times sweeter than sugar (and thus only very little is necessary), but the most interesting fact about Stevia is that it is calorie-free. Amazing. I thought I had discovered a plant that could solve the world’s obesity and health problems! But it wasn’t to be. It had been discovered already and was available as one of the only sugar substitutes at the time derived from plants. C'est la vie.
  • *3 Vanilla syrup – Most recipes tell you to infuse a whole vanilla pod in milk, cream etc. then to be discarded and occasionally washed off and recycled as vanilla sugar. A good vanilla pod will cost you up to £2.50 each. I have found a much better way to use 100% of the pod. It is simple and keeps for as long as you like. The sugar content will act as a preservative and you should store in a sealed jar or container in the fridge. For the method, roughly chop together 6 large vanilla pods, removing the hard nib at one end and simply purée together with a warm sugar syrup (100ml water and 100g of caster sugar boiled together). Voilà.
  • *4 Boiling Wine – By boiling the wine you will remove the bitter alcohol taste and leave the delicate fruity qualities of the wine.
  • *5 Poaching – It is important that while the fruits are poaching, the liquid does not come to a boil; the intensity of the heat will damage the delicate flesh of the fruits.