Want to make a special dessert for your special valentine? National food educator Wendy Barrett was here with an easy, but fancy dessert using pears.

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Poached Pears with Chocolate Sauce

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

Poaching Ingredients

• 4 medium ripe yet firm Bosc pears
• 750 ml/25.3 fl oz. water
• 100 grams/3.5 oz granulated sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken
• juice from 1 lemon and zest

Chocolate Sauce

• 100 grams/ 3.5 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 80 ml / 2.7 fl oz milk
• a pinch of salt
• 50 grams / 1.7 oz chopped walnuts

Instructions:

Poaching the Pears

1. Fill a bowl with cold water with lemon juice.
2. Peel the pears, leaving the stem intake.
3. Cut a thin slice from the bottom of each pear, to create a staple base.
4. As you peel the pears, put them in the lemon water to prevent them from browning.
5. Combine the water, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest in a saucepan to hold all the pears.
6. Bring to a boil, then add the pears, and cover the pears with parchment paper, to keep them immersed in the poaching liquiid.
7. Simmer for 10 minutes or until tender.
8. Gently remove the pears from the liquid and allow to cool to room temperature.
9. Strain the poaching liquid into a wide pan and cook over medium high heat, simmer and cook until you get a syrup consistency.

Chocolate Sauce

1. Meanwhile make the chocolate sauce, so in a medium saucepan heat the milk, until warm.
2. Gently remove the saucepan from the heat and add chocolate. Stir in until the chocolate has melted.
3. Pour chocolate sauce into a deep glass container and set each pear into the chocolate sauce, making sure, you leave a space at the top of the pear that doesn’t have chocolate sauce.  Make sure you remove excess chocolate sauce before rolling into the nuts.
4. Roll each pear, into the nuts, holding on to the stem.
5. Place each pear onto a plate.
6. To serve spoon some chocolate sauce onto a plate, top with poached pear.
7. Pour syrup over each pear, garnish with fresh mint , and ice cream if you like.
8. To eat, cut into each pear with a knife, and slice off a piece.