Of Love and Quinces

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I haven’t done very much cooking lately. I’ve been eating an ungodly amount of delivered pizza instead. It’s not entirely my fault; I’m starting up a chapter of the HPA here, and my fellow exec have Pizza Pizza on speed dial.

I haven’t even had a proper grocery shopping session in a while. I was running out of necessities though, and did a quick Metro run. It was there that they found me – memories of my forgotten love, and the quinces that triggered them.

Sometime last year, I decided that if I ever had Michael Bublé over for dinner, I’d make him a quince tart. & he’d propose to me instantly after the first bite. A girl can dream, right? Alas, Mr. Bublé is now happily married to another, and I’m left to finish my quince tart alone. Not too bad a deal, now that I think about it .

Eating quince is a luxurious experience. While a lot like an apple, but bitter when raw, the fruit cooks down to a soft pear-like texture, with a beautiful, jammy, complex flavour. I cooked the quince in a sugar, using the contents of a chai tea bag, and ratafia for spice. I made this tart for me, after all. Sometimes, we need to remember to do things for ourselves. Especially labour-intensive things we would normally do for another only.

Quince Tart
Makes one medium-sized tart.

1 Quince, peeled and sliced into 16ths
2 Cups water
1 Cup sugar
3 Tablespoons ratafia
1 Chai tea bag
1/2 Recipe pastry dough (I like Devaki’s recipe, though this time I just kind of threw something together)
*NB: Measures are approximate. I kind of eyeballed everything.

1. Pour water into a saucepan, and warm over low-medium heat.
2. Add sugar to water, a little at a time, stirring until dissolved.
3. Once the sugar is dissolved, add in the quince slices, making sure they are at least 1 in below the surface of the water. If not, add more water.
4. Stir in the ratafia and contents of the tea bag. Cook the quince until soft and the colour begins to change, stirring occasionally. This takes a good long while.
5. Let the quince cool, and roll out the pastry dough. Strain the quince slices from the syrup, and place them in the middle of the dough. Save the quince syrup; it’s amazing in pumpkin lattes.
6. Fold edges of dough over towards the middle, like in a galette (only in my case, a lot more messy), and bake till golden brown.

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• autumn
• dessert
• fall
• food
• fruit
• pastry
• quince
• tart