quince

My friend Sue popped round yesterday bearing gifts.  Plenty of apples – both eating and cooking – some lovely peppers from her greenhouse and a basketful of quinces.  Now I have to confess to not knowing very much about these strange but beautiful fruit so I thought I would do some research.

Originally from Persia they were very popular with the Greeks and Romans and as the symbol of love and happiness were dedicated to Aphrodite in Greek mythology.  It is also said that in the Garden of Eden the serpent tempted Eve with a quince not an apple. 

Quinces were being grown in England as early as Medieval times with records showing that Edward I planted four trees at the Tower of London.  Their popularity grew from the 1600s onwards when a merchant by the name of John Tradescant brought the ‘Portugal’ variety to England and in fact they remained popular well into the 1900s when for some reason they fell out of fashion.

Happily the quince is now making a comeback and there a number of varieties available for lovers of unusual garden fruit.   Sue was lucky enough to find several well-established quince trees in her new plot at Meadow Cottage.   The tree is long-lived with lovely knotted branches, erupting into beautiful pale pink blossom in the spring.  The fruit ripens from green to yellow and looks like a strange shaped pear.  As part of the rose family it has a distinctive aroma which is permeating the kitchen right now and is indeed quite pleasant.

So what to do with these quinces?  Well apart from the ubiquitous Quince and Apple Jelly I found some lovely recipes in one of my favourite books here.

I will try this one at the weekend ~

Quince and Polenta Upside Down Cake

Serves 6

175g, 6 oz caster sugar

4 quinces, peeled, cored and sliced

Juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp honey

100g, 4oz butter

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

100g, 4oz self-raising flour

50g, 20z instant polenta

Caramel Sauce

225g, 8oz light muscovado sugar

2 tbsp milk

15g, half ounce butter

Grease a 20cm, 8in round cake tin and sprinkle two tablespoons of the caster sugar over the base.  Arrange the quince slices over the sugar and sprinkle with lemon juice.  Drizzle with the honey.  To make the sponge, cream the butter with the rest of the caster sugar, beat in the eggs, vanilla essence and flour with the polenta.  Spoon over the quinces and spread evenly.  Bake in the oven at gas mark 4, 180C (350F) for about 40 minutes.   Turn out on to a serving plate.  To make the sauce, heat the sugar, milk and butter together and boil all the ingredients together for 7 minutes.  Serve the cake with the sauce.

Sounds yummy!

If you have a penchant for historical and traditional recipes - take a look at this fascinating website here.

Jeanne

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