Steam Combi Recipe: Sous Vide Poached Pears

Poaching pears on the cooktop is a lengthy process and requires a significant amount of poaching liquid most of which is wasted. By processing your pears in a sealed bag using the sous vide function in your steam oven, you require a lot less liquid, which is more intensely flavoured and can be used later in a variety of forms.
Experiment with both the liquid and the aromatics, replace some of the water with a sweet riesling, or a red wine and swap the aromatics out for a completely different result every time.

METHOD

1. Peel pears neatly leaving stem intact (Place in a bowl of water with 1T lemon juice to stop from browning).
2. In a saucepan, bring the remaining ingredients to the boil and stir until sugar is dissolved. Cool slightly.
3. Place pears in vacuum bag/s (2 per bag is easier to deal with)
4. Divide syrup with spices between the two bags
5. Vacuum seal or remove as much air as possible and seal
6. Sous Vide at 95C for 1 hour
7. Remove pears from bag and strain syrup into saucepan.
8. Simmer syrup until reduced by half and it has become thicker.
9. Serve pears drizzled with syrup.