Lots of pears and apples around it being winter and all, so I got all english at the weekend and made crumble with poached pears. By poaching the fruit the crumble tastes pretty different and less sugary in my opinion, you could poach apples too I guess and I like to mix half poached with half not so you get a different texture and taste. Poaching liquid 100ml of caster sugar to 200ml of water...use depending on how many pears you poach and should cover all the pears in a big pan cinnamon stick 2 Star Anise 1 bit of peeled lemon rind 1 Pear per person (best to use harder pears not very ripe ones) Heat the poaching liquid and spices, lemon rind until the sugar has dissolved. Peel half the pears whole and place in the poaching liquid and cover with a round piece of parchment paper. Bring liquid to a low simmer and they should cook for about 20-30 mins depending on how ripe the pears were at the start. You should be able to stick a knife through. Take them off the heat and let them cool i...