750 ml white wine 750 ml water 200 gm sugar zest of a lemon (strips) 6 firm pears 2 cm cinnamon stick 4 cloves half a nutmeg juice of half a lemon
Make a poaching syrup by boiling the wine, water, sugar, zest and spices together util the sugar is well dissolved. Cool the syrup, leaving the zest and spices in it. To minimise bruising do the pears one at a time: peel, cut in half, core, and place immediately into the syrup (the acid stops discolouring). Bring the syrup to the boil and poach the pears gently until they are just showing some sign of being cooked - test with a cake tester; cook until the pears can only just be pierced by the tester. Do not overcook. Allow the pears to cool in the syrup, preferably overnight - in fact, store them in the syrup until you are ready to serve; this gives them that transparent look.
4 passionfruit 100 ml water 100 gm sugar
Extract the juice from the passionfruit - I do this by squeezing the pulp through a fine cloth. Combine the juice with the sugar and water and bring it to the boil. It may form a scum from passionfruit pulp - skim this as it forms. Reduce the liquid to about half its volume. The syrup should be very clear.