Quinces...

I've always loved cooking. There is something gratifying about spending time creating food - not just for sustenance - but for the entire sensory experience, physically working with your hands to chop, stir, saute, and enjoying the smells, tastes and sights that cooking brings.

Before leaving Sydney I discovered a wonderful place, not far from home called Cornersmith. This fantastic enterprise includes a cafe and picklery where they bottle and preserve a range of jams, preserves and pickles and using the local produce. You might think that local produce in an urban area is limited, but you'd be mistaken! Herbs, vegetables, fruit, honey, you name it someone has it growing in their back yard (or on their nature strip!) In a wonderful display of community this produce is shared in return for jars of the finished product. How great is that?

You won't be surprised to learn that this spirit of giving and sharing is alive and well in the country. My sister-in-law's large and abundant vegetable garden and fruit trees have ensured I haven't been lazy since moving here, so far I've managed to turn out a Peach and Lime jam, a Pear and Apple chutney, Burnt Fig and Pear Paste and today I'm going to try my hand with a fruit I've never cooked with before - quince.

Driving down our street the other day I noticed a fruit tree growing in a vacant block. It was heavily laden with large pear-like fruit. The fruit was too big for pears or and the wrong shape for apples but after thinking for a while it occurred to me that they might be quince! How exciting!! So the other day I stopped on the way past and picked one. Yes - said google - it is quince. Visions of quince paste with aged cheese danced in my head - but even more compelling was the memory of Nana Beryl's quince jelly.

So yesterday I attempted both quince paste and quince jelly. I'd looked up some recipes online and read through the recipes I had in various books and was set to go!

It was a long and occasionally arduous task - I have a blister at the base of my index finger which proves how hard quinces are to cut. But all in all I'm pretty happy with how this first attempt turned out - which is lucky because I have more quince paste than I can poke a stick at, but only enough jelly for three jars...

You can find the recipes I've used here: Quince Paste; Quince and Rosewater Jelly

Quince and Rosewater Jelly

Ingredients:

           

The peels, cores and cooking water from the Quince Paste making

Sugar

Rose Water (optional)

Method:

·        Take the muslin bag of peels and cores in what’s left over of the original cooking water.

·        Boil for a good while, at least an hour.

·        Remove and reserve the muslin bag and strain the water into a new pot.

·        Wring out the muslin bag until you’ve extracted the pectin – a slippery, viscous liquid. Add this to the strained cooking water – it’s what will enable your jelly to thicken.

·        Measure the liquid.

·        Bring to a boil, and add sugar. For each litre of liquid, add half a kilo of sugar. Boil, stirring constantly, for about an hour (oven mitts!). About half an hour in, add 1 tbls of Rosewater. When the jelly turns dark red of the and the foam along the edges of the pot is white and thick, test the jelly’s consistency by putting a spoonful on a plate and letting it cool.

·        Spoon the jelly into your sterilized jars and seal

Quince Paste

Ingredients:

Quince

Sugar (how much will depend on the weight of the pulp)

1 Lemon

Method:

• Wash the quince well to remove the fluffy down from the skin
• Fill a dish with warm water and add the juice of half a lemon
• Chop the quince into 2cm pieces, reserve the core and seeds
• As you chop drop the pieces into the water/lemon juice bath to prevent it going brown
• Remove from juice bath and place into a large saucepan with plenty of water along with the lemon peel
• Tie the cores and seeds into a square of muslin (cheesecloth) and add to the pot
• Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until fruit is soft (around 30 - 45 minutes depending on the amount of fruit you started with)
• Strain the fruit, reserving the cooking liquid (to use for the jelly) and the bag of cores
• Place the strained fruit into a food processor and process until smooth or return the fruit to the pot and blend using a stick blender (you can also use the back of a spoon if you wish)
• Weigh the pulp 
• Return to pot with 70-80 grams of sugar for every 100 grams of pulp (ie 1kg of pulp with 700 - 800 grams of sugar) and a little of the cooking water.
• Heat over low heat for 3-4 hours stirring occasionally. I used a slow cooker for this part and it took about 6 hours.
• The paste is ready when it is a deep red colour and is very thick, pulling away from the sides of the pan
• The last stage has various alternatives and I've used 2 of them:
• Spoon into sterilised jars and seal
• Pour into a lined baking pan or glass dish, smooth with a spoon and bake at 50 degrees Celsius for 5-6 hours. Refrigerate for 4 hours, then slice. 

And so...it begins...

Sunningdale is a large Edwardian home on 2.5 acres of land located in North Eastern Victoria, Australia.

In 2016 we began the process of restoring Sunningdale. We started with the rebuilding of the stables. Used as a garage, gardeners quarters and storeroom for many years, the original building was in a sorry state and required complete renovation.

After 6 months of planning and approvals, works began on January 14th, 2016. with the careful removal of the original timbers, floors and walls. Most of these materials will be reused for the reconstructed building in one way or another.

The aim is to rebuild the stables to house up to four vehicles, an office/workshop, bathroom and a large upstairs storeroom.

The little reptile fellow in the middle is a Marbled Gecko. Our eldest son was so thrilled to have found him, he brought him home and created a habitat in an old aquarium. Unfortunately the lid wasn't secure enough and with 48 hours the little guy had decided to find a new home. Despite scouring the house we still haven't found him...