Battered quince.

I have been patiently watching and waiting for the right moment to pick the fruit from the big old quince tree that hangs over the wall near my flat. When I got home from work yesterday evening it looked like someone had decided to give it a helping hand. All the fruit from our side of the wall was now lying on the ground with a few artistically piled up on a low wall. Hm. So this morning, in my pajamas and slightly manic bed hair, I gathered up the least battered, intent on jam.



Look at the quince and it's textured paving slab bruise. Poor quince.

Quince facts. Related to apples and pears, you don't see the quince around very much now. There is an ornamental version with very pretty coral coloured flowers which much more popular. Like the medlar, it's a traditional fruit used mostly for jams, jellies and for stewing. Bright yellow when ripe, the fruit gives off a sweet, slightly tar-like perfume. Sounds odd but actually rather nice.

Having hoarded empty jars (sorry Dr W) for most of the year it was probably best that I continued the jam theme.

1 kg jam sugar
About 8 fist sized quince (or equivalent)
2 lemons
Water

Zest and juice the lemons. Pour the lemon juice into the bottom of the pan that you intend to use. Peel, core and chop the quince into small pieces putting them in the pan with the lemon juice as you go. This stops them discolouring. Bleurgh. Pour in just enough water to cover, add the zest and boil until soft which doesn't take long.

When soft, mash the fruit with a potato masher (yes!), add the sugar, bring to the boil and stir to dissolve the sugar. Turn down the heat and stir often until the jam thickens and turns pinkish. Pour into hot sterilised jars (wash well then in the oven for 10mins at 200°C) and seal with lids then leave to cool. PLEASE BE CAREFUL OF HOT JARS! Ouchy. Made one big pickle jar and two normal sized jars. Good for toast and pheasant.

So, back to the carrots.

Once again it's been a little while since my last post. And again, sorry about that. It's been a summer of full weekends and rather tired, easy, cheap, not particularly bloggable weekday suppers. We've eaten a lot of chickpeas. A lot of pasta. And a lot of Quorn. *yawn*

But with Autumn pretty much upon us and Winter ominously looming I promise, PROMISE, pies, stews, soups and baked goods various.

Anyway, spurred on by my jam making success earlier in the year I thought I'd give it another go. And in the spirit of the blog I chose carrot jam. Yes. Carrot jam. Why? Well, post jam making I'm not sure it was my best choice but it's not unpleasant. Just, um, unusual. See Hugh for the recipe.

Now for the justification. Try and get through this bit. Carrot jam may sound unusual but the carrot was massively important during the rationing of WW2. Really, it's a jam of necessity but as vintage is very popular these days I figure that carrot jam is cool. Yes.

A few words of warning. Only make this jam if you have a food processor. Or over-developed arm muscles for grating. Do not just use granulated sugar. Use jam sugar with added pectin to help it set. I trusted Hugh and used granulated and I was there for a loooooong time. I only got it to set (ish) by adding more sugar when I had finally got bored of waiting.

So the final product, with it's cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, is like the jam equivalent of carrot cake. Miss Hurley Burley at work suggested a good piece of tangy, crumbly wensleydale cheese to accompany it. I think she's right. Think chilli jam not strawberry and it's not so weird. Well...