Quince by Kai Chan

Quince
by Kai Chan


I often have one or two quince fruit in the house when they are in season. I like its wonderful fragrance and the beautiful yellow colour. Many people describe it like an apple but I think it distinguishes itself with a more sculptural form.
We had very tasty goat stew with quince fruit in Istanbul, since then I often add quince fruit into my stews.

Gary Dault has introduced the cookbook by Patience Gray’s “Honey From a Weed - Fasting & Feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades & Apulia” in this column. It is a wonderful book to read, full of amazing food, people and places, however, as the subtitle indicates, the range of ingredients are difficult to find in Toronto, especially the variety of fishes. However I did find a wonderful recipe for making quince jam.

First, weight the same amount of sugar as the quince fruit, then peel and core the fruit and cut into 1/4 inches slices and put them into water with lemon juice. Keep the mixture in the fridge  overnight then put it into a stainless pot, heat until boiling, dip in a sprig of basil for a minute  and then lower the heat to simmer until the mixture turns a light rosy pink. Turn off the heat for about 10 minutes, add the sugar and turn on the heat to boil. add more basil if desired. Patience Gray said the jam will turn into rose red, but my jam appeared to be pale pink.

Store the jam in sterilized glass jar. One quince fruit will make two cups of jam.

 

 

The Raw and the Cooked, MYTHOLOGIQUES is a new column on the culture of eating and cooking, with contributions by various authors. The column name is borrowed from the title of a book by Claude Levi-Strauss. It is spontaneous, a little amusing but serious at the same time.

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