The blood oranges are irresistible at the moment, each fruit shot through with pink like the sky on a winter’s morning. I bought a dozen this week, each with their green leaves in place, and laid them out on a wooden tray on the kitchen counter. Luminous, they poured sunlight on the greyest of days. Later, I squeezed the juice from two of them, stirred in a glass of walnut-coloured sherry and used the result to soak slices of lemon sponge for a winter trifle. I made custard, a thick version with cream and egg yolks and a little sugar, then stirred in slices of almost ripe, perfectly unblemished banana.

People have long fought over whether bananas belong in trifle. I insist they do. They are good friends to the custard, cream and sponge of the traditional recipe. This time, I flavoured the custard with cardamom which, with cinnamon, is a banana’s favourite spice.

The glow of seasonal oranges aside, there is little of interest in terms of fruit right now. Luckily there are pears still worth eating, especially the plump-bottomed comice. Thirty years ago, there was barely a restaurant menu in the land without pears in red wine on it. It has to be said that many of those glossy syrups tasted too much like cough mixture, which was often down to a heavy hand with the cloves and bay. I returned to the idea this week, cooking the hard fruit with red wine, sweetly spiced with a star or two of anise and half a vanilla pod. I then lifted the pears out and bubbled the cooking liquid down to a blackcurrant-coloured syrup. The dish is about the balance of sugar and spice, but the poaching liquid needs to be quite sweet in order to tease out the flavour of the pears. It is worth remembering that it is the intense sweetness of the syrup that makes canned pears so good.

Take the cooking of the fruit as far as you dare, so each pear is truly tender. Your spoon should be able to slide effortlessly through the butter-soft flesh.

Spiced pears with red wine and dark chocolate

Pears are notoriously capricious and can take anything from 15-50 minutes to poach to tenderness. You need to keep your eye on them. A metal skewer or small, sharp knife is a boon here, and they should be checked every 5 minutes or so during cooking.



Serves 3

red wine 750ml

star anise 3

cloves 5

vanilla pod 1

cinnamon ½ stick

caster sugar 4 tbsp

cardamom pods 7

pears 3, firm

orange peel 2 x 5cm strips

shelled pistachios 2 heaped tbsp

dark chocolate 200g

Pour the wine into a deep, non-reactive saucepan. Add the stars anise, cloves, vanilla pod, cinnamon and sugar. Crack open the cardamom pods with a heavy weight, such as a pestle or rolling pin, then drop them into the wine and bring it to a simmer.

Peel the pears, keeping them whole, their stems attached to hold them by. Lower them into the saucepan, then adjust the heat so the liquid continues at a light simmer. Let the pears cook until they are just tender, checking their progress regularly with the point of a knife. The cooking time can be anything from 15-50 minutes depending on the ripeness of your fruit.

Remove the pan from the heat. Scoop them gently from the cooking liquor with a large spoon, then set them aside in a bowl or shallow plate. Place the pan over a high heat and bring the cooking liquor to a bubble, then continue cooking until it has reduced to less than 500ml. Taste the syrup for sweetness, adding a little more sugar if you wish.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and leave to melt in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Finely chop the pistachios.

Halve the pears lengthways and place them in shallow dishes. Pour over the red wine syrup and scatter with pistachios. Decant the chocolate into a small jug and pour a little over each pear at the table.

Quick banana trifle with cardamom custard

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Winter pudding: quick banana trifle with cardamom custard. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer

Once you return the custard to the heat, stir pretty much continuously until it thickens a little. If it becomes grainy you have overheated it. Pour into a chilled bowl set over a bowl of ice cubes and beat hard with a whisk.

Serves 6

sponge cake 250g, Madeira or lemon

blood oranges 2

lemons 2

sherry 100ml, medium-sweet, such as oloroso

double cream 500ml

cardamom pods 10

vanilla extract

egg yolks 4

caster sugar 3 tbsp

bananas 3

To decorate:

double cream 250ml

lemon or ginger biscuits 3, crushed

orange zest of 1

Break the sponge into small pieces and place in the bottom of a serving dish. Squeeze the citrus, you need 200ml of juice, then mix with the sherry. Pour the juice and sherry evenly over the sponge.

People have long fought over whether bananas belong in trifle. I insist they do

Warm the cream and vanilla in a medium saucepan, but don’t boil. Beat the yolks and sugar together then pour the cream over and combine. Rinse the pan then return to the heat, pour in the custard and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the custard lightly coats the back of the spoon.

Peel and slice the bananas and stir them into the custard then pour over the sponge and leave to cool. Refrigerate for at least an hour, then whip the cream until thick and then place in large spoonfuls around the edge. Decorate with crushed biscuits and orange zest.

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