These are quinces. They are bright golden yellow when ripe, a bit fuzzy off the tree (but the fuzz rubs off when you wash them), and knobbly. They are hard like an apple, but even harder to chop (seriously, be careful). Their inside flesh (and eventually texture) resembles a pear. You can't eat a quince raw, you have to cook it to soften and sweeten it.
I chopped up one of the three quinces and placed in on the stove in a pot with 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar. Bring it all to a boil and let it boil away until the sugar cooks down and becomes a syrup (about 30 minutes). In the meantime, halve the other two quinces and place them, cut side down (inner seeds scooped out) in a 9x9 roasting pan. Pour the syrup with cut quinces over the halved quinces and place in a preheated 400 degree oven for an hour. After an hour, turn the heat down to 325, flip quinces over and baste the whole thing before putting back in the oven for another hour. Do that again (flip and baste) after the second hour and return to over for yet another 30 minutes to an hour, until the quinces are carmelized on the outside, tender if you stick them with a knife, and beautifully red! Yep, quinces do that on their own...change color that is! Something about the tannins that are released when the cook. I don't fully understand it, but it's neat nonetheless!
This ooey-gooey mess it what it looks like out of the oven! According to Nigella, roasted quinces pair well with pomegranates, another winter fruit which we happened to have. So we gave it a try!
Halve one pomegranate and submerge it in a sinkful of water to pull it apart and break out the seeds. It really is a great trick, you don't get splattered with red juice that will stain your clothes and the pith floats to the top while the seeds sink to the bottom! Sprinkle a few of these ruby jewels on the top of a quince half and it is serious sweetness!
After a few bites of this delectable dessert, Randy and I decided we needed to cut its sweetness with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It disappeared so fast I didn't get a picture!
Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson's cookbook, Feast.
