Poaching Bosc Pears. 低溫煮Bosc Pears

•Poaching.. is the process of gently simmering food in liquid, generally water, milk, stock or wine

I still remember the first time in my earlier years of French cooking; that my Chef had came up to me one morning with a filet of salmon and told me to "Poach" it. "Poach.... it?",  I replied with a confused expression. I was still a very young cook then, and I had much to learn about all the different types of cooking methods.

My Chef had introduced to me the world of poaching, and when I had tasted the salmon, it was nothing like I had ever tried. It was so tender, super moist and the meat of the salmon became so delicate that if you hadn't picked it up with a flat spatula, it would have broken into pieces.

It's been many years since my first experience of poaching, and throughout these years, I've poached much more than just the salmon. I've explored and poached all sorts of meats, seafoods and also fruits. One of my favorites and also a French classic, are the poached pears.

Poaching is a great way to soften under ripe fruits and also infused tons of flavors into it. And in this case, we're poaching "Bosc Pears". They are great for poaching due to their firmness and their ability to hold their shape after many hours of cooking.
In this poaching solution for the pear, it's just a simple syrup which is 1 : 1 - sugar to water, and flavors such as vanilla, cinnamon, rosemary, thyme, black peppercorns and you can also add in white wine if you wish. Then the liquid is brought up to a boil and the heat is turned down so that the liquid will just gently simmer for about 30 minutes. And the great thing about these poached pears is that, if you keep them in the syrup, not only will all the flavors infuse deeper into the pears but also the pears will have a shelf life of 10-11 days.
Poaching is real simple and besides the pears, you can also try with peaches and or apples.