Minding my P's and Q's

Parkin, Pesto, Quince.

Not all together!

Parkin, because it was bonfire night the week I attempted these, and Parkin is Dan's childhood-nostalgia bonfire night fix.


Except the recipe I tried was very old-fashioned and treacley. Dan remembers it as more ginger and golden-syrup and less treacle. I'll try the another recipe next time I feel inclined to try making Parkin and see if I can get closer to what he remembers. Still, what was left over after we attacked it on bonfire night went down well with my colleagues in the office on monday!

Pesto for no reason other than that we had a load of basil in the fridge which needed using. Yummy mixed with a little tomato sauce on gnocchi. Much nicer than the shop-bought jars. But the I suppose that shouldn't be surprising since anything fresh is usually better than something made in a factory and then left sitting in a jar for ages.

Now, the quinces.
This was because of my photography tutor John, who taught me on a darkroom course a couple of years ago. John has a love of quinces, jam in particular. I had never even heard of the fruit until I did that course, and this week I saw them for sale for the first time ever. They were in a metal bin at the farm shop - funny little fluffy things, like hard yellow pears. On impulse I bought a few. I had no idea what I would do with them or how you eat them.

Once at home I found a recipe for pear and quince compote in my Kitchen Bible (not me being facetious, it really is called the Kitchen Bible ), which took care of 2 of the fruits. I was a bit perturbed by my quinces not going a lovely ruby colour when stewed like the picture in the recipe book, but they tasted very yummy served slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla icecream, so I assume I just had a different variety of quince.
As I chopped, peeled and cored the quinces for the compote it became very obvious that they are not a fruit which you eat raw. The taste is so sharp it almost makes you wince (unintended rhyme!) and they're as hard as wood.
Ok that's an exaggeration, but you get my point.

I couldn't quite face chopping, peeling and coring the final quince. They were pretty awkward to work with because they were so hard. Baking seemed the way to go - 20 minutes or so in a medium oven (about 180C) softened the fruit up beautifully, making it easy to chop and mix with sugar for adding to a crumble at a later date.

I loved the flavour of quince. It tastes old-fashioned. Somewhere between an apple and a peach perhaps. I don't quite know how to describe it. Yes, its a pain-in-the-arse to prepare - certainly not a low-maintenance fruit. But I think they're worth it once in a while.