I often struggle with what to do with all my lovely vegbox pears. Last night I decided to poach them so I could have them for breakfast this morning. Usually you get the great colour with wine, but since they are breakfast pears, I used tea, an orange and it’s peel (from my vegbox), a 1/2 inch of veg box ginger I sliced, a few hibiscus leaves for colour, 4 green cardamom pods, some star anise, a couple of cinnamon sticks, 1/4 c of sugar, and a couple of tea bags. I did this all in my instant pot, but you can just as easily do this in a regular pot. Here is what I did.

I put all the poaching ingredients in my instant pot (or in a regular pot) with 500 ml of water and let it boil away for about 5 mins (on sauté if you are using an instant pot). Peel the pears. I sliced them in half and removed the core, since I find it is easier to arrange them in the pot as halves. After 5 mins, remove the tea bags and add the pears and if you are using an instant pot set it to low pressure and pressure cook for 4 mins and then do a quick release and remove the lid and remove the pears with a slotted spoon. If you are doing it in a regular pot, poach the pears for about 15-20 mins depending on your pears, then remove with a slotted spoon. Bring the poaching liquid back to the boil (if using an instant pot, use the sauté function) and simmer until thickened and reduced by half, then pour through a strainer to remove the orange peel, ginger, cinnamon, star anise, and cardamom. Pour the syrup over the pears, set aside to cool, then cover and chill in the fridge overnight. Done and done!