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Poached Pears in Muscat


This dessert was inspired by a recipe I saw in the September issue of Olive Magazine (Greece version) and it’s a Greek dessert in that I’ve used wine from the island of Samos, pears, Greek honey, cloves, cinnamon and I made a pseudo Greek coffee.

The island of Samos is in the Aegean and it’s within site of Turkey. Samos is renowned for it’s Moscato grape varietal of wines. I had some Samos Muscat left over from the holidays and poaching some pears seemed like a noble way to finish the bottle.

Muscat (Moscato) wine is usually enjoyed with a dessert and in this case, it’s in the dessert. This wine is sweeter than regular whites but nowhere near as sweet as a port or sherry.

I think 2008 will be a big year for Greek wine. Last year’s dry weather was ideal for a good wine harvest, the Greeks are flogging their products better than ever and the demand for lesser known wine varietals is up. What’s old is new again!

Poached Pears in Muscat
(for 6)

6 Bosc pears (with stems)
1 cinnamon stick
4-5 cloves
1/4 cup honey
1 slice of ginger
1/2 cup Samos Muscat (or Moscato wine)

For the Pseudo-Greek Coffee

A scoop of good chocolate ice cream per serving, melted

  1. Peel the skins of your pears with a vegetable peeler but leave the stems on. Core each pear (from th bottom) to remove the core and seeds.
  2. Into a medium sized pot, add your wine, cloves, cinnamon and honey and place your pears upright in the poaching liquid and bring to a boil.
  3. As soon as the liquid is boiling, reduce to medium low and simmer (lid on) for 30-40 minutes. Take out the pears and reserve.
  4. Uncover the pot and reduce the remaining liquid until it comes to the consistency of a syrup.
  5. Arrange the poached pear in a plate, pour the syrup over top and garnish with nuts and a side of Pseudo-Greek coffee.
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23 Responses

  1. Peter, I take it you speak Greek fluantly? Absolutely wonderful! and you sound like you have a large and engaging family! How Fun! =D

    Your plating of the Pears and Muscat belongs on a television food show or at the least, a top food magazine. Effort definitely went into making the dessert this beautiful! =D

  2. Hi Kalofagas,

    You have a lovely food blog~ I’m enjoying with all your posting and been reading it since last month.
    Hope u don mind I’m adding u in my list. I’m new blogger, started to blog since Oct’07. I’m Malaysian Chinese, a working lady but love cooking ~
    The Dessert you posted up here looks really delicious. Bet it is even nicer to serve with the Greek Coffee.
    Here is my blog ~ http://www.bigfishchin.blogspot.com

  3. A very fitting end to the Samos wine. An excellent photo and composition as well. My own photos don’t always turn out so I just put photos of other things in their place.

  4. ‘”Γλυκά (Glyka) are sweets, DUH”, was the response I usually got.’

    Yup, that’s how I would have responded, too! :) This looks great, Peter. So simple but so elegant, and no doubt very tasty.

  5. I have never heard of this word for sweets in Greek. Never the less, lovely dessert and I love the fact that you have used muscat from Samos. And the pseudo Greek coffee is a nice touch.

  6. Usually not much leftover wine in the house, but would gladly open a new bottle to try out these pears. Nice photo Peter!

  7. Peter — stop making up words.

    I come from REAL Greece — the South — and I’ve never heard this word used :-)

    Paul

    p.s. Damn — I will email you the recipe very soon!

  8. Shandy, yes I do speak Greek fluently.

    Big Fish, thank you for reading, I’ll drop by your blog and say”hi”!

    Elly, I’ll tell ya, it’s fun stumping other Greeks.

    Peter, Muscat wines are fabulous.

    Deb, I forget about the leftover Muscat, otherwise it would have been gone!

    Paul, how provincial of you (horiati)! lol

  9. Peter, Samos muscat is an excellent wine as well as most wines of Samos. I lived three years in Samos (Karlovassi) and had the chance to try most of its wines. As for the word επιδόρπιο I am not surprised that you and Peter from Sydney do not know the word (it is only natural if you learn a language just by hearing it from your parents and friends and going to Sunday school). If you see my Greek blog my desserts are labeled under epidorpio.
    Greek language is THE richest language in the world and we have a word for EVERYTHING (I am not exaggerating). I think if you read this Article you will see what I mean. http://w3.usf.edu/~hellenic/FrameZolotas.htm Apart from that Greek words are descriptive of what they mean. EPI – adverb of manner DORPON (NOUN in ancient Greek meaning main course/dish. So epidorpion is what we eat after dinner, not necessarily sweet, it could be cheese, fruit or even a drink. I shall try and post something to mention what an epidorpion is.
    Sorry, I got carried away.
    I love your photo and the dessert is so simple, healthy and tasty.

  10. Ivy, thank you for the background on the word, epidorpio…I love the word!

    As for Greeks having a word for everything, we do not practice what we preach. Each year when I visit Greece, I hear more foreign words infiltrating day to day conversations.

  11. This is a great recipe!

    I come from Athens, (which is real Greece) and I agree that epidorpio (επιδόρπιο) is the right word for dessert, and glyka (γλυκά) for sweets. Dessert is not always sweet, and sweets are not only consumed after dinner. But during the last decades even Greeks tend to forget the wealth of our language!

    Are there any quinces(?)(κυδώνια – I looked it up in the dictionary) in Canada? If there are they are great for this recipe too!

  12. Yes you are right about that and especially the younger generation you can’t understand what they are saying. (e.g. κούλαρε (cool down), έχω φρικάρει (I have freeked out) etc. Personally, I have encountered some difficulties when I am writing in Greek (when it has to do with the internet) I try to find words in Greek to use and the only word which still troubles me is to translate the word “food event” in Greek.

  13. Arxontia, thanks for visiting us, Xamotzou! lol

    To answer your question, Quinces are available in Canada however they are imported and as you know, they are now not in season.

  14. Peter, I have that exact recipe marked to try! Thank you for testing it. I continue to bemoan my inability to subscribe to Olive.

  15. I love this post, Peter! The picture, the story behind the epidorpio word, the recipe… I guess I could use Moscatel to reproduce the recipe here. I think it’s a very similar wine to Samos Muscat.

  16. Folks, once again…I was inspired by a recipe from a magazine, I loved the presentation and recreated it as best I could.

  17. How interesing Peter! I have really enjoyed this exchange. You are so lucky that you learned to speak your native language fluently. I wish I could say the same for my Italian. It is such a pity I wasn’t taught more.

  18. Jenn, when my parents emigrated to Canada, they knew little English. I remember attending kindergarten and having to learn English.

    Canada’s the “multicultural mosaic and the US is the “melting pot”.

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