Quice, Pears, and Jam-o-rama

What you are seeing above, my friends, is a quince turnover that I made this weekend. Quince! How exciting! I've never used/bought/tried a quince before! For the unitiated, a whole quince is pictured below:
They're a strange little fruit that's described as a cross between a pear and an apple. This might be true, with the exception that they are hard as rocks and must be cooked down before you can do anything with them. Taste wise, they're a little more tart than a pear or an apple--really delicious and really interesting.

I was able to enjoy this quince thanks to Jaime at Wayward Seed Farm. When I picked up my share this past weekend, we got to talking about the end of the season (sob!) and what to expect for our last week. One thing led to another and she offered me one of the quince (quinces?) that she had recieved from a friend. (Thanks again, Jaime!!!) After taking the quince home and contemplating it for a few days, I decided what I would do--one quince isn't really enough for jam or jelly, and I wanted to do something that would really let me taste the fruit. With a sheet of frozen puff pastry in the freezer, the game plan fell into place: turnovers.

A brief sidebar here--frozen puff pastry is awesome, and I can't really ever picture a need to make it from scratch. Seriously, Pepperidge Farm does such a great job making it themselves, why go through all the hassle yourself?

Prepping the quince was fairly easy (I say fairly because they are extremely hard to cut--apparently quince related finger injuries are not uncommon)--I peeled, cored, and chopped it into pieces then threw them into a sauce pan with about 1/4 c. of sugar and one-third of a vanilla bean. I let it simmer down for about 10 minutes, to the point where there was hardly any liquid left and the quince was the consistency of apple pie filling.
While that was going on, I preheated the oven to 400, defrosted the puff pastry, rolled it out so that it was about 12" square, and cut circles out that were about five inches or so in diameter (I used a small bowl). Then, I just spooned the quince filling (remove the vanilla bean!) onto the circles, and sealed them using an egg wash (you can see it in the picture above). Fold, press, seal, and into the oven they went for about 15 minutes....Et voila!
******
Pear-stravaganza!

This past weekend, I also stopped over at the Ham Sandwich parental homestead. While there, I was informed that the neighbor's pear tree was inundated with pears, and we were encouraged to go pick some:So we did, probably 30 or so pounds worth:

I hope everyone likes canned pears for Christmas!

******
Finally, capping off a rather fruit-filled weekend, I made a couple jars each of apricot and pear jam.
Most of my canning recipies have been from Well Preserved, which has lots of really lovely small batch canning recipies and ideas. I just used her standard apricot jam recipe, and tried the gingered pear jam one as well--both were quite delicious. For the gingered pear jam, the recipe just calls for 1/4 c. chopped crystallized ginger to be cooked with the pears, as well as some whole cloves and a cinnamon stick tied up in a cheesecloth bag. The resulting jam was a heady mix of sweet and spicy, and will be delicious on some buttermilk biscuits in late December and January...

Comments

Emmy The Wayward Seed Dog said…
You are quite welcome! I think I might try this myself. A good quince turnover sounds yummy!
October 17, 2009 at 7:41 PM
Emmy The Wayward Seed Dog said…
And PS: thanks for the jam today!
October 17, 2009 at 7:42 PM
avesta said…
your turnovers look great...flaky! nice!!!
November 14, 2009 at 1:06 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strawberry Basil Shrub (aka, the Drinking Vinegar Craze)

Image
Drinking vinegars, or shrubs, are all the rage these days. Shrubs are fruit infused vingegars sweetened with sugar, and they are delicious mixed with some soda water or any given liquor. Shrubs have been around on the fancy-cocktail circuit for a while (I had a shrub cocktail at Nopa in San Franciso in 2009, and they're making a splash at Andy Ricker's Thai street food mecca  Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon.  His "Pok Pok Som Drinking Vinegars" are so popular that he's producing them for sale outside of his restaurant, and they're now available at Weiland's in Clintonville.  On the local blog scene, last week the lovely Rachel Tayse chronicled her creation of a rhubarb shrub on her blog Hounds in the Kitchen .  You should check it out. Over at the Ham Sandwich HQ, I had a dozen pounds of strawberries, courtesy of a seriously focused hour of picking at Schacht Family Farms last Saturday.   My freezer is not big enough for twelve pounds of frozen str...
Read more

Buffalo on the Ceiling, Pancakes on the Floor

Image
And now...FINALLY....the first in series focusing on some of the wonderful (and slightly different) food experiences I had while travelling in Nepal. Nepal has a rich culinary identity, shaped by its proximity to India and Tibet, a temperate climate, and fertile soil in the Kathmandu Valley. While it shares some similarities to other South Asian cultures (rice as a staple, liberal use of curry), it nonetheless has dishes that are unique to the region. There is also a subset of Nepali culture in the Kathmandu Valley, the Newars. The Newars are the indigenous people of the Valley, and have their own language (Newari) as well a culinary tradition distinct from Nepal as a whole. My friend, tour guide, translator, and all around awesome host for my trip, KLB, had heard that there was a "secret" local restaurant near her house, and it served authentic, real-deal Newar food. While on one of our shopping excursions, she asked around and we discovered that it was just around the c...
Read more

Vice Presidential Debate Drinking Game

Image
I know everyone else is doing it, but here's another set of rules for tomorrow's VP debate. You can thank me on Friday morning, when you can't remember any of the drivel that was spouted the night before. Also, it looks like we'll be playing at Barley's on High St.---come on down and join! The Vice Presidential Debate Drinking Game (brought to you by Cliff, Ethan, myself, and of course, the internet): Take a drink if : Palin touches her glasses and/or becomes more “adorable” Palin says “hockey mom,” “Russia,” “9/11,” or “maverick” Palin just rephrases the question she’s asked in an attempt to make it an answer. (Two if she uses the moderator’s name repeatedly) Biden mentions taking the train to work or questions Palin’s experience. Biden makes a historically inaccurate reference. Biden makes a condescending reference or gives a condescending look. Either of the candidates says anything folksy. Two drinks if it's the actual word "folks." Either of the...
Read more