Red Wine & Winter Fruit Trifle

Red Wine Poached Pear

6 corella pears
750 ml bottle Cab Sav
500 g caster sugar
2 cloves
1 star anise
1 cinnamon quill
4 cardamom pods
1 lemon, zest and juice

Place all liquids, spices and sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Peel, halve and core the pears.
Place pears into boiling liquid and reduce to a simmer.
Cover with cartouche and cook for 20 minutes or until tender.
Allow to cool in liquid.

Rhubarb

1 b. rhubarb, trimmed and washed
500 g caster sugar

Cut rhubard into 1 cm lengths and place in a bowl with the sugar.
Mix together and allow to macerate over night.
Remove rhubarb from liquid into separate bowl.
Place small amount of liquid into heavy based saucepan and bring to boil and add rhubarb.
Simmer gently until rhubarb is tender and allow to cool.
Repeat until all rhubarb has been cooked.

Vanilla Mascarpone

500 g mascarpone
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
200 ml pouring cream

Whisk cream to firm peaks.
Place mascarpone in a bowl, add the vanilla seeds and slowly fold in the pouring cream.
Refrigerate until needed.

Hazelnut Praline

500 g hazelnuts, roasted and peeled
500 g caster sugar
250 ml water
20 g liquid glucose

Place sugar and water into heavy based saucepan and bring to boil.
Scatter hazelnuts onto a tray lined with non-stick baking paper.
Cook until sugar begins to caramelize then reduce heat and continue cooking until the caramel is a dark golden colour.
Pour caramel over hazelnuts and allow to cool.
Break into small pieces and place in food processor and crush to form a powder.

Hazelnut Meringue

100 g egg white
100 g caster sugar
100 g icing sugar
15 g cornflour
100 g hazelnut meal

Whisk egg whites to soft peaks then slowly add the caster sugar, whisking continuously to form a glossy meringue.
Sift the icing sugar and cornflour together and fold into the meringue.
Fold through hazelnut meal.
Pipe small peaked drops onto a tray lined with baking paper and bake at 50 degrees for 1 hour.
Place on wire rack to cool and store in an airtight container.

Assembly

Slice 2 pear halves and place neatly in the bottom of a glass at least 1 cm high.
Sprinkle on a layer of praline at least ½ cm high.
Pipe in a layer of the mascarpone cream 1 cm high.
Add layer of rhubarb 1 cm high.
To finish drop on tiny meringues and dust with icing sugar.