Red Wine Poached Figs With Vanilla Ice Cream Recipes

Steps:

• Combine the wine, sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves, peppercorns, and lemon rind in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stir to dissolve the sugar, and reduce heat to a bubble.
• Bring the poaching liquid to a boil and cook on high heat until reduced to a syrupy texture. Add the peaches and poach the fruit, spooning the syrup over them occasionally, until you can pierce the peach easily with a knife, about 5 minutes.
• Put the peach halves in 2 dessert bowls. Top with ice cream, whipped cream, and drizzle with the poaching syrup. Grate a little nutmeg over the top.

Steps:

• In a saucepan combine the wine, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Bring the liquid to a boil over moderately high heat, stirring, and simmer the mixture for 5 minutes. Add the figs and simmer just until figs are heated through. Let cool to warm. Arrange scoops of gelato in two stemmed glasses and top with the figs and some of the poaching liquid. Garnish with mint if desired.

Steps:

• Trim and halve the figs, place in a saucepan with the wine, sugar, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the wine is reduced by half and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the thyme sprigs. Serve on top of an assertive cheese, such as Manchego, blue, Taleggio, or a triple cream spread over bread slices.

Steps:

• In a 1 1/2-quart saucepan combine all ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Simmer figs, covered, until tender, about 30 minutes.
• Transfer figs with a slotted spoon to a bowl and boil syrup until reduced to about 1/4 cup. Strain syrup through a fine sieve into another bowl. Add syrup to figs and cool to warm.
• Serve fig mixture spooned over ice cream.

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until figs are easily pierced with the tip of a sharp paring knife, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• With a slotted spoon, transfer figs to a bowl; simmer remaining liquid until reduced to about 1/3 cup, 3 to 5 minutes (liquid should look syrupy and coat the back of a spoon). Pour through a fine-mesh sieve over figs, and let cool slightly. (If refrigerating, bring to room temperature before serving.) Serve figs and syrup over ice cream or whipped ricotta cheese, if desired.

Steps:

• Spread the sugar in the bottom of the pan, and pour in 1/2 cup water and the lemon juice. Set the figs in the pan, stem up, in one layer. Nestle the strips of lemon zest and the bay leaves in between the figs.
• Set the pan over low heat, and cook slowly until the sugar melts and the figs release their juices. As the juices rise in the pan, gradually raise the heat to keep them bubbling (and "galloping"). When the figs are soft and the liquid level comes halfway up their sides, in 30 minutes or more, turn off the heat, and let the figs rest in the pan for an hour or longer, to reabsorb some of the juices.
• Slowly heat the figs and juices until they're bubbling again, and cook for 30 minutes or so, until the figs are very soft (but still intact) and the juices have become thick and syrupy.
• Let the figs cool before serving. Arrange them in a serving dish if you like, with the syrup all around. Enjoy the fruit and syrup on their own, or atop vanilla ice cream, or with a soft, creamy cheese such as Taleggio or Robiola.