Viva la Quince Brigade!
Oct. 18th, 2009 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustSo, as I was saying, I came home from holiday with a bucketful of quinces (decanted into a cardboard box and layered in newspaper, because they travel better that way and besides, the Bears needed their bucket back). That was eleven days ago.
On the first day of quinces, I chopped up four pounds of the smaller, knobblier quinces and stewed them, peel, cores and all, plus very little water in the pressure cooker. I wasn't bothered about cooking them under pressure, but it's about the biggest pan I have, and even so, I couldn't quite fit four pounds of quinces into it. So I peeled and cored the overflow, added a couple more and poached them with pears for dinner.
On the second day of quinces, I sieved the pulp in the pressure cooker (and added in the leftover pear and quince - there wasn't much of it - for good measure). The I added sugar until it was still quite tart, and cooked it down to a thick paste. When it was so dry that a line drawn through it with a wooden spoon stayed drawn for some time, and it had turned a deep garnet red, I poured the paste (all of it) into a dish about half an inch deep and seven inches square, and left it to set. Meanwhile, since I was frizzling up bacon and potatoes and leftover greens for dinner, I chopped a quince into that, too (that was delicious - it gave it the lift that adding an apple would have given, but sharper).
On the third day of quinces, I poached more pears and quinces in a thin syrup of vanilla sugar, and froze them for later. We ate them with guests on Friday, all except a small amount which is still in the fridge and which I think I will bake with the almondy poundcake mixture on top.
On the fourth day of quinces I chopped up all but the two nicest of the surviving quinces and stewed them whole with water, quartered apples and a cinnamon stick. I sieved the cooked fruit and boiled it with as little sugar as I could get away with until it was thick, but not as thick as the first batch. That made a jar and a half of quince and apple butter, and it is very tasty, but I admit that the apple cinnamon flavour is further to the fore than I'd intended (this is probably the fault of the cinnamon stick). It didn't turn red either.
On the fifth day of quinces, I followed (at a safe distance) Claudia Roden's recipe for tagine with quinces: chopped onion, garlic and ginger root are stewed gently in- You know, I think I used olive oil, and butter might have been better. Quinces like butter. Anyway, then I added the chicken breasts, and the remaining quinces, peeled and sliced, and some saffron, and very little water, and stewed it until it was almost done. Then I added a little sugar, because I found the dish too tart without it. It was OK, but the component parts didn't really get together. If I try that again, I might use lamb instead of chicken.
Also on the fifth day of quinces, I pricked a pound of sloes, put them into bottles (one large, one medium, on small) added sugar and filled the bottles with gin. But that's another story...
On the first day of quinces, I chopped up four pounds of the smaller, knobblier quinces and stewed them, peel, cores and all, plus very little water in the pressure cooker. I wasn't bothered about cooking them under pressure, but it's about the biggest pan I have, and even so, I couldn't quite fit four pounds of quinces into it. So I peeled and cored the overflow, added a couple more and poached them with pears for dinner.
On the second day of quinces, I sieved the pulp in the pressure cooker (and added in the leftover pear and quince - there wasn't much of it - for good measure). The I added sugar until it was still quite tart, and cooked it down to a thick paste. When it was so dry that a line drawn through it with a wooden spoon stayed drawn for some time, and it had turned a deep garnet red, I poured the paste (all of it) into a dish about half an inch deep and seven inches square, and left it to set. Meanwhile, since I was frizzling up bacon and potatoes and leftover greens for dinner, I chopped a quince into that, too (that was delicious - it gave it the lift that adding an apple would have given, but sharper).
On the third day of quinces, I poached more pears and quinces in a thin syrup of vanilla sugar, and froze them for later. We ate them with guests on Friday, all except a small amount which is still in the fridge and which I think I will bake with the almondy poundcake mixture on top.
On the fourth day of quinces I chopped up all but the two nicest of the surviving quinces and stewed them whole with water, quartered apples and a cinnamon stick. I sieved the cooked fruit and boiled it with as little sugar as I could get away with until it was thick, but not as thick as the first batch. That made a jar and a half of quince and apple butter, and it is very tasty, but I admit that the apple cinnamon flavour is further to the fore than I'd intended (this is probably the fault of the cinnamon stick). It didn't turn red either.
On the fifth day of quinces, I followed (at a safe distance) Claudia Roden's recipe for tagine with quinces: chopped onion, garlic and ginger root are stewed gently in- You know, I think I used olive oil, and butter might have been better. Quinces like butter. Anyway, then I added the chicken breasts, and the remaining quinces, peeled and sliced, and some saffron, and very little water, and stewed it until it was almost done. Then I added a little sugar, because I found the dish too tart without it. It was OK, but the component parts didn't really get together. If I try that again, I might use lamb instead of chicken.
Also on the fifth day of quinces, I pricked a pound of sloes, put them into bottles (one large, one medium, on small) added sugar and filled the bottles with gin. But that's another story...
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Date: 2009-10-18 07:06 pm (UTC)I just forwarded the quince recipes
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Date: 2009-10-18 07:14 pm (UTC)