Sunday, December 16, 2007

my week with quince

A quince is a fruit related to apples and pears native to southwest Asia. While it seems that nearly all the worldwide quince production is inside China, Toigo Orchards out of south-central Pennsylvania grows some here in the states. A few weeks ago, I noticed my friend Robb Duncan, owner of Dolcezza Gelato, had made some Spiced Quince gelato. Up to that moment, I had never recalled hearing of such a fruit. The next Saturday, Jill came home from the market with two of them.



The picture above is a bit more bumpy than the fruit that we got from Toigo. Jill was told to pick up some lamb and cook the quince till it softens (it is pretty tart and a bit fibrous when raw). With the first quince, we peeled it and chopped it into cubes, then boiling the pieces in sugar water for over half an hour. We pulled out the fruit and used part of the remaining quince sugar water to scrape out the pan we did the chops in for a sauce. We made a bulgur wheat salad with almonds and dried apricots to accompany and enjoyed a very delicious dinner last Sunday.

With the second, we again peeled and chopped it, but this time we combined the quince with cubed sweet potato, maple syrup and salt, roasting it all for about forty minutes. This provided a great side last night with lentil soup and fresh baked bread.

Quince, you are my friend.