Roast winter fruit with port and spiced mascarpone

Babiche Martens

Ingredients

1 knob	Butter, to grease dish
3	Pears (Main)
½ cup	Caster sugar
1	Vanilla bean
2	Oranges, juice and zest
2 Tbsp	Water
4	Tamarillos, peeled but left whole
3	Persimmons, peeled and halved
1 cup	Port
4 stalks	Rhubarb, cut into 10cm lengths
1 cup	Mascarpone
1 tsp	Ginger, ground
½ tsp	Cinnamon, ground
1 tsp	Honey, warmed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 170C. Grease a baking dish with butter. Halve the pears and remove the cores.
2. Put into the dish, hollow side up. Sprinkle with sugar and dot each with ½ tsp of butter.
3. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds over the pears. Tuck the bean into the dish.
4. Sprinkle over the orange zest and juice. Add the water. Cover tightly with a lid or use foil and roast for 45 minutes.
5. Add prepared persimmons and tamarillos to the roasting dish with the port. Recover and return to the oven.
6. Increase the oven temperature to 200C. Uncover and add the cut rhubarb, spooning the juices around. Return to the oven for 15 minutes, uncovered.
7. Serve hot with the spiced mascarpone; stir the mascarpone together with the ginger, spices and honey.