Winter Warmer

Unloved apples, Pimms left over from summer, a penchant for anything cinnamon and my love for cooking on the weekends has led to this...

Pimms Cinnamon & Vanilla Poached Pears

Obviously this has been done before, but I didn't a follow a recipe, any measurments for general poaching or even a guide for poaching the old things. So here we go and tonight they will be tested after a beaut dinner of roast beef :) mm.

Ingredients

• 4 apples
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3/4 cup of sugar (I used fructose)
• Sultanas/Raisins
• Water (1 pint)
• Vanilla Extract - Or pods if you are lucky enough to have them!
• Pimms No.1 (1/2 pint)

N.B. You also need the juice of your lemon mixed in a bowl of water to keep your apples from browning as you faf around. Unless you are super good at timing.

I used some anonymous apples from my uncles tree and some random fella that looked like he was up for a poaching. I'm not sure how a braeburn/pink lady etc takes to cooking. But basically I looked for apples that didn't look appetising to eat raw!

I started by putting the water, cinnamon & sugar in a heavy pan over a low flame, adding lemon zest after the water was slightly heated, this is in order for all the lovelyness to be released from the ingredients! Just a side note, I zested straight in to the pan so to catch any yummy lemony oils. 

I then peeled and cored the apples, placing them in the lemon water. I don't have a corer, so this left some hefty holes all the way through, which was affecting my cooking time loads!

(In hindsight I would probably score them with a fork instead, and core them far more delicatley because my apples lost their structure really fast. One even just was a mush at the end.)

After about 5-10 minutes I added the pimms, and left for another few minutes before adding half the raisins and all the apples. I then put the rest of the raisins in the holes of my apples. This was half just for fun and half to give my apples more structure so I could cook them for longer. 

I then poured a little vanilla extract in the middle of each apple and some in the liquid. This probably amounted to a tablespoon. But this was only extract and I LOVE vanilla so wanted a stronger flavour. I wish I could've added vanilla seeds in at the beginning, much yummier :) 

At this point I turned the flame up to low to medium till I got a little simmer on...

After around 7 minutes I turned my apples over (to cook the tops) and saw that my bottoms were far too mushy :( grr. Anyway I didn't cook the tops for as long, turned the heat down and kept lifting them for a check as my confidence was out the window!

Once I was satisfied that they were cooked I slowly lifted them out into a dish and then turned the flame up and got the pan boiling so I could reduce the liquid (and alcohol) down slightly.

After a few tastes I was happy with the flavour. I left mine quite thin because I want the clotted cream ( :) mm dreamy) to add the thickness. If I was more dedicated I would have left it to thicken to a syrup, but I was worried that it wouldn't taste of pimms any more.

YUM. A big thumbs up all round. Dissapeared in about 3 minutes.

I reheated the .. gravy? sauce? liquor... before serving and dolloped the clotted cream on before melting it all with said liquor. 

 Delicious, sweet, slight tang from the booze. Would think about serving the apples hot and having with ice cream!

Also I now want warm Pimms with apple as a drink now.

Labels: Recipes