Pears Poached in Red Kampot Pepper with Vanilla Ice cream

 
On the surface, this seems a naughty dish, and it is rather. After a delicious supper, what's better than a beautifully poached pear with vanilla ice cream?

You'll need:

• As many eager mouths as you'll allow to sample this deliciousness
• 4 Bosc pears
• Water
• 1 lemon 
• 1/3 cup of caster sugar
• Vanilla ice cream
• 2 sprigs of fresh mint
• Stony Groves Red Kampot Pepper

This one needs time for the delicious pepper flavours and heat to be extracted so crack around 20-30 cracks of Stony Groves Red Kampot Pepper into around 100ml of water, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. 

As usual, preparation makes for stress-free cooking and better plates of food. So core, peel and halve the pears, zest the lemon, and squeeze a couple of tablespoons of its juice into a medium pot along with half the zest. Wash the mint and let it dry.

Pour pepper water into the pot and add more water (enough to cover the pears with a cm extra). Add caster sugar and heat slowly to dissolve sugar, and do not let it boil. Add pears and simmer for 8 minutes or until a knife can easily go through them. Take off heat and leave covered for ten minutes. 

Serve on pudding plates (side plate) with half a pear for each eager mouth. Quenelle vanilla ice cream with two wet tablespoons and place in the cored area of the pear. Place a couple of mint leaves on top, crack more Stony Groves Red Kampot Pepper over them, and serve.