POACHED PEARS IN WHITE WINE AND SABAYON SAUCE MY VERSION

Got the recipe inspiration from Julia Child's "Pear Poached in White Wine and Sabayon Sauce". As you know Julia Child is a "Vermouth lady" so obviously this recipe will call for one. Since i don't have vermouth in my "wine cellar" ha!ha! i wish!...i decided to make some substitutions and made use of what wines i already have and then i also tapered the quantity since i will be making this dessert for 3. Anyways, i'll post the original recipe just incase. And will do my version as i go along.

Pear Poached:
8 to 10 firm, ripe, unblemished fresh Bartlett pears
2 quarts water and 4 tablespoons lemon juice in a bowl
1 quart fine strong dry white wine or 3 cups dry white vermouth and
1 cup water
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 sticks or 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Sabayon Sauce:
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup fruit poaching liquid or a sweet white wine plus a little vanilla
1/4 cup white vermouth
1/4-1/3 cup sugar, depending on sweetness of liquid added.

Peel, halve and core pears, dropping them into the lemon water as you go, to prevent discoloration.
Meanwhile, simmer wine with lemon zest and juice, sugar and cinnamon for 5 minutes.
Drop in the pears (adding only so many that the cooking liquid covers them, or add more wine plus 6 Tbsp. sugar per cup.)
Maintain liquid at just below the simmer for 8 to 10 min. just until pears are tender when pierced w/ knife.
Let them cool in the syrup.
Serve warm or cold: store in a covered bowl, in the syrup in the ref.

For the Sabayon Sauce:
Whisk all sabayon sauce ingredients together in a stainless or enameled saucepan.
When well blended, whisk over low heat until mixture is thick, foamy and warm to your finger.
Do not bring too near to simmer or the eggs will scramble, but you must have enough heat to do the job. (a wisp of steam rising over the surface usually indicates the sauce is done- after 2 to 4 min. of whisking.

Note: With a longer wait, the sauce will usually separate but can be rehomoginized by beating again over heat. It will not be a foamy sauce, however, if reheated, it will usually be a smooth yellow cream, like a custard sauce.

Peel and core. I used melon baller to core. Some pears i left whole and some i cut in half for presentation.

This the wine i used for poaching in lieu of Vermouth. Love this wine!

Julia Child's Sabayon calls for Vermouth but i have always used Marsala for my sabayon sauce.
I opted for Bain Marie (water bath/double steaming) to make my sauce, instead of cooking directly into a pan w/c i think gives you a lot of room for mistake such as over cooking the eggs.

I LOVE THIS DESSERT!

I tried serving the poached pears w/ vanilla icecream it was delish as well.

Don't mind my attempt to make ice cream quenelles, it didn't come out as shapely as i wanted it to be
If you don't want to make the sauce serve it w/ ice cream it's also wonderful.