Todays offering...

I've finally got round to doing something with the quince that I picked last Tuesday, luckily they last for a few weeks after picking.  I make some sort of chutney every year with some of them and a few years ago - 2009 to be precise - I found a recipe that included lots of Indian spices such as cardamom seeds, coriander seeds, turmeric...  Unfortunately my filing system/recipe file has totally let me down and I can't find any trace of the original recipe.  So off to google I went, put in the fruit, spices etc that I think went in the chutney and up popped a recipe from Turkey.  It didn't look familiar, don't think it's the same one, but that's what I've made today although with a bit of tweaking of the ingredients.

The end result but only using half the quince.

It's a 2 stage recipe, day 1 you peel, core and chop 2.5 kilos of quince and put in a bowl then cover with 700g of brown sugar.   I used soft brown but not dark.  Cover with cling film - or a shower cap - and leave overnight.

Day 2, put the sugary quince into a large pan - I used the pressure cooker - and add these spices..... Dry roast 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 2 teaspoons coriander seeds and grind.  Add to fruit along with 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 2 or 3 teaspoons grated ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 8 cloves garlic finely chopped,  2 spanish onions finely chopped, 2 teaspoons salt, and chilli. 

(chilli is to taste, the recipe said 1 teaspoon of cayenne but I added 1 fresh chilli absolutely no chilli taste at all, added 1 more, and 1 more, 4 in total but I wanted a fruity chutney with some kick.)

To all the fruity spicy mix add 500ml of white wine vinegar and pressure cook for 10 minutes on high,  reduce pressure with cold water, mash fruit down using potato masher,  add remaining 300ml of vinegar and simmer till thick.  Don't know how long it would take to reach that consistency if cooked without a pressure cooker, this took 40 minutes in total.

Put into sterilized jars until - well, most chutneys you have to keep till they improve.  We ate the left overs tonight as there was just a bit too much for 11 jars and it was wonderful. 



PS:  the caterpillars are back...on the biggest, best red cabbage that we have - or had!