Spiced Christmas Pears

Method

1. Place the pears in the bottom of a large saucepan. Add the berries and ¾ of the red wine and the star anise, bay leaf, cinnamon stick and cloves.

2. Place the lid on and bring up to the boil and simmer until tender – not too much otherwise the pears will fall apart.

3. Remove the pears and gently place into the sterilized Kilner jar.

4. Remove the star anise, bayleaf and cinnamon stick and add to the pears in the jar. Now add 3 more new whole cloves (ignore the old ones) and the sliced ginger to the jar too.

5. Push the liquid and fruit through a sieve, making sure you get as much juice out of the fruit as possible. Replace the sieved fruit and juice into the saucepan, add the rest of the wine and the sugar and boil until syrupy.

6. Pour this over the pears, seal the jar and label.

7. It will be ready for Christmas…although you can eat it straight away too!

These pears are delicious with cheese and wonderful over ice cream.