With our son Arthur, we have been strolling through the streets of Rotterdam West - a charming and dynamic neighbourhood. In fact, it is so dynamic that a family of an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz (who are actually Tatars and Ukrainians) not only do not feel too foreign but are right at home.
Fall leaves beneath our feet, magnificent maple trees separating sidewalks from the roadside, local "moms and pops" businesses - what a utopia.
On one of such walks and in one of the many fruit/butcher shops we ran into quince. A strange fruit that too many people have no idea what to do with. They try biting in, but the fruit is unpleasantly tough, tart and sour. Quince loves to be cooked!
For me, quince resembles the taste of childhood. Every fall, mother would cook quince preserves. The recipe is very simple. Let me share it here right away before I forget.
Ingredients and proportions
For 1 kilo of quince I used
500 grams of sugar. Brown or white doesn't matter.
2 cups of water and
one mandarin peel
That's it!
Equipment
1 saucepan
1 wooden spoon
Method
Cube quince and cover in sugar. Let sit for 1 hour.
Add the water and roughly chopped mandarin peel.
Bring to boil. Turn off the heat.
Every 3 hours bring the goodness to boil and then off the heat. Do this 3-4 times.
Serve on bread, over ice cream, or eat by the spoonfull!
I served mine over simple water-based oatmeal porridge. Then I ate some as it is. Then it needed to be hidden from me.
This preserve is just magical. Quince turns into amber! The mandarin peel is such a nice touch. What a perfect later-autumn/winter flavour! Hope you try!
