Picture yourself after a very casual dinner at home and maybe, just maybe, you’ve eaten a tad too much. Now do you tend to think along the lines of “Boy, I really feel full” ? or more like “I wonder what I could have for dessert?”, “Does the fridge offer something sweet?” and “Where is the chocolate?”. The notion of a second, or third stomach is one you’re quite familiar with?
That would be me. So me. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate, out of the way, dessert serving, but I can rarely call it a day without the tiniest bite of something sweet. My typical everyday solution is ice cream (preferably homemade leftovers) with some sort of topping or extra, anything from granola to chopped chocolate, roasted nuts or fruit compote. Or ginger & tea flavored quince.
From the moment I spotted Marisa’s recipe for Quince Slices in a Spiced Chai Syrup, back last winter, this has become my preferred way to prepare quince – after my beloved Membrillo recipe. Lazy me, ‘just streamlined the process a bit and added some honey, vanilla as well as some slices of fresh ginger – some additional heat for those cold winter nights are always a good idea. Just make sure to never run out of ice cream!
Wash, peel, core the quince(s) and cut it into thin slices (I had roughly 250 g fruit slices). Add water, sugar, scraped out vanilla seeds (and the bean), honey, some stripes of lemon zest as well as the ginger slices to a pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a bare simmer. Fill 2 teaspoons of black tea (use your favorite, e.g. Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Assam) into a paper sachet or infuser and let steep for 3 to 5 minutes, before you remove it.
Now add the quince slices to the syrup and let simmer (covered) for 15 to 20 minutes or until the slices are tender but don’t fall apart. Remove vanilla bean, lemon zest and ginger slices, then fill into sterilized jars using a funnel tube, close the lid, gently tap on the counter to release air bubbles and leave to cool on the counter before storing in the fridge. Even if you don’t care to sterilize the jars, the quince will keep well in the fridge for at least one or two weeks. Best served with plain vanilla, caramel or dulce de leche ice cream.
Ginger & tea flavored quince
Recipe source: inspired by Marisa's recipe
Prep time: ~30min.
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Ingredients (~400 ml jar):
1 large quince
300 ml water
125 g white or brown sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
2 tbsp honey
1 organic lemon with untreated skin
4-5 slices of fresh ginger
2 tsp black tea (Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Assam)
best served with ice cream
Nov 29th,
2012
This looks delicious. I recently made poached quince with ginger, vanilla, lemon and cardamom. Tea sounds like a lovely addition. I'm thinking this would be good spooned over some luscious Greek yogurt.