Vegan Mulled Wine Poached Easter Egg

Vegan Mulled Wine Poached Pear, Passion Fruit Puree, Coconut & Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta, Dark Chocolate & Red Wine Caramel. Cinnamon Tuile. Mulled Wine Reduction.

Happy Easter! My goal for this dish was to create a fun twist on the classic chocolate Easter egg without using a mold. This is a wonderful grown up version of an Easter egg using a red wine poached pear. It's a delicious and elegant reimagined Easter Egg. It's easy to make and I hope you will enjoy eating it as much as I enjoyed making it.

You can find the full story of the inspiration behind this dish here: theosfeast.com/post/reimagining-the-easter-egg

This recipe serves 6, but it's easy to add more servings. It takes approximately 2 hours of cooking time.

Equipment:

Digital Thermometer, or candy thermometer.

Vegetable Peeler

Pairing knife

Grape fruit spoon, or small egg spoon

Heavy bottomed pot

Slotted Spoon

Chef knife

Microplane

Not stick Frying Pan

Poached Pear Ingredients:

1 Bottle of Merlot Red Wine.

6 firm pears. Select pears that are firm and already egg shaped. Firm is better than overly ripe for poaching.

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2” piece of fresh ginger root, chopped

1 Vanilla Bean, split with vanilla seeds scraped, or 1 table spoon of vanilla Extract

5 whole cloves, or 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves

2 Cinnamon sticks

2 Star anise stars, or 1 teaspoon of ground Star Anise

3 Green Cardamom pods.

6 pears, pealed, cored and shaped like an egg using a sealer and Micro plane.

Juice of one orange

1 orange peele rind

1 cup of apple juice

Poached Pear Instructions:

Add the wine, and spices to a large pot big enough for the bottle of wine and pears.

Add the sugar and spices to the wine. Do not turn on the heat yet.

Core and peal the pears, use your knife, peeler and a micro plane to shape it to look like an egg.

Place the shaped pears into the wine as you finish them so the don’t go brown.

Set the heat to medium. Bring the pears just to a slow simmer. Do not let them come to a full boil. The slower they cook the more flavour they will have. They will take 15 - 20 minutes to poach, pending on the ripeness of the pear. Keep a close eye on them.

Once they are just getting soft, remove them and let them cool.

Place them in the fridge, sitting up, uncovered to cool and dry out.

Prepare the cold poached pears for glazing by setting them down on something that will slightly elevate them that is smaller than the bottom of the pear. Some ideas could be a small mini muffin tin, turned upside down, small shot glasses, a small ramekin or a spice jar. You will be pouring very hot caramel over each egg so you want to use something that can stand up to the heat, a plastic cup will melt. Use something that can be easily cleaned once the hot caramel sets. I use a silicone mini muffin mold turned upside down. I also place it in a parchment lined cook sheet.

If you are using a metal muffin tin you will want to spray it with non stick spray.

Chocolate & Red Wine Caramel Shell

You will need a digital instant read thermometer ideally with a separate probe. Or a candy thermometer. You can still do this with out one, and just watch for when the colour of the syrup changes. However I highly recommend using a thermometer as caramel is easy to burn. I really like this digital thermometer that I found on Amazon. It has a separate probe and is very accurate. It a great investment for any kitchen.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of caster sugar

1/3 cup of light corn syrup

1/3 cup mulled wine( strained) or water

60 grams of dark chocolate, chopped

2 Table spoon of mulled wine reduction

1 Table spoon Vanilla Extract

1 Teaspoon of ground cinnamon

I highly recommend using a heavy bottom pot for this for even heat distribution so you don’t burn the caramel. Insert and clamp your thermometer probe into the pot so it is not touching the bottom or side of the pot. Add the sugar, wine or water and corn syrup into your heavy bottomed pot. Turn heat to medium, let it simmer with out stirring it for about 10 - 12 minutes. Keep an eye on it and check the temperature with a digital instant read thermometer. You can also use a candy thermometer but many I have used are not accurate or as reliable as a digital instant read thermometer.

If you do not have a thermometer you can go by color. But then I would not add the wine until after you have reached your caramel by watching for the syrup to change color.

Heat the sugar until it just starts to turn golden brown at 320F or 160 C remove from the heat, and mix in your Chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of red wine reduction continuously stirring with a silicone spatula.

Put the mixture back on medium low heat and heat it back up to 250 F while stirring continuously.

Test the caramel by spreading a small amount on a silicone baking mat or a piece of parchment paper. The caramel should set quickly, and have a nice shine and snap to it. If it does not continue to heat the caramel on medium low while stirring the caramel. Then test it again. It should be smooth and glossy.

Place your poached pears on something like an upside down muffin tin or a tinfoil and non stick sprayed spice jar. You want to put your pear on something that ideally is smaller than the base of the pear so the caramel will flow over and coat the entire pear.

Be sure the caramel is at least 200 F. Carefully, pour the hot caramel over the pears.

Let them cool for 5 minutes. With a sharp knife, carefully trim the caramel just below the base of each pear. Continue to let the pear cool for about 10 more minutes until it is set and cool to the touch.

The remaining caramel can be used again by adding to the pot and remelting it at 250 F.

Mulled Wine Reduction:

Reduce the remaining mulled wine and spices until it is a thick paste. About an hour on Medium low heat.

Passion Fruit Puree Yolk.

1 1/2 cups of Passion fruit juice. You could also use Mango Puree as an alternative.

1 teaspoon of Agar powder (vegan) or gelatine powder, bloomed in water.

Sugar to taste

1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla

Warm the above ingredients in a small pot, whisk in the agar powder, bring to a min of 185F to activate the agar.

Pour into a separate container and let cool in the fridge and set.

Once it is set, blitz it with an immersion blender or a whisk. Set it aside.

Coconut & Vanilla Bean Pana cotta

1 can of coconut milk

1 Teaspoon of Agar

1 Vanilla Bean scrapped or teaspoon of Vanilla Paste or 1 table spoon of Vanilla extract

2 Teaspoons of honey.

Gently heat the coconut milk honey and vanilla paste until warm. Whisk in the Agar powder, then bring it to min 185 F or a low simmer.

Pour into a bowl and let set in the fridge. It will set in about 20 min in the fridge.

Once it is set, blitz it with an immersion blender. Set aside.

Cinnamon Tuile Nest:

220 ml water

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 tsp of salt

120 g or 2/3 cup all purpose flour

80 grams of cornstarch

1/2 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

1 table spoon of vanilla extract

Blend the above ingredients in a blender. Pour it into a medium ziplock bag. Trim a small corner of the bottom of the bag. Mark the trimmed corner with a marker or a piece of tape so you know which corner is trimmed.

Prepare a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. You will also need a small glass or ramekin that is slightly bigger than circumference of your pear.

Heat up a large non stick pan on medium heat. Brush the pan with a little canola oil.

Once it is hot, squeeze or pipe the batter in random thin lines onto the hot pan. Let it cook for about 3-40 seconds. Then gently scrape it off with a spatula and immediately wrap it around the glass while it’s still hot. It will quickly crisp up and maintain it’s shape as it cools.

Plating:

On a plain white plate, use a pastry brush to paint a line of Insert a teaspoon of Passion fruit puree into the base of the pear then fill the remainder of the cavity with Coconut Pana cotta.

Place a nest in the centre of the plate. Place the filled pear in the centre of the nest.

You will need a knife, fork and spoon for his dish.

Crack the egg with the pack of your spoon and enjoy.