Quince.

Quinces are one of my favourite winter fruits. My Grandmother Norma who is a wonderful country cook makes the best Quince Roly Poly. It looks very similar to the Jam Roly Poly found here. It has to be one of my favourite desserts as a kid and Norma would always make one when I travelled up to visit her and Pop.

I have never attempted to make my own because I don't think it would ever be as good as hers. However I love to stew and bake Quinces when they are in season. They can be a little expensive and hard to track down in Queensland but my mum managed to pick some up for me the other day. While we were in Tasmania recently they were only about $3 a kilo as opposed to $8 here, however I was able to stock up on plenty of home made quince jam!

Last season I used the following recipe from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion cookbook. It worked a treat and I used the Cinnamon Stick variation. The syrup that the baking process created was divine. The only tip I would give is to keep an eye on the bottom as it can catch, especially in a standard convection oven like ours.

Oven Roasted Pears or Quinces

Equipment

Baking dish

Spoon

Knife

Basting brush

Bowls

Ingredients:

• 80 grams butter, chopped

• 6 pears or 3 quinces

• 150 grams castor sugar

• Juice of 2 lemons

• 6 lemon verbena leaves (or a vanilla bean, scented geranium leaf, citrus peel, cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick or a star anise)

• Honey-flavoured yoghurt or double cream, to serve

What to do:

Preheat oven to 150°C. Melt butter in a 1.5 litre-capacity baking dish.

Peel pears, halve lengthways, remove cores with a twist of a parisienne spoon and roll in melted butter. Wash and peel quinces, halve lengthways and remove cores if you wish (they are quite edible after 3 hours cooking). Roll in melted butter. Turn fruit so it is cut-side down in baking dish and scatter with sugar. Drizzle over lemon juice and add lemon verbena leaves or other flavouring. Cover tightly with a doubled sheet of foil and roast for 2 hours.

Turn fruit and baste with syrupy pan juices. The pears may be tender at this time and can be lifted onto a plate. Re-cover and bake quinces for another hour; they are ready when tender and highly glazed. Serve fruit with honey-flavoured yoghurt or double cream.

This recipe is from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion (Penguin Lantern 2009).

Happy Cooking.

Cheers Sarah

xoxo