apple and quince crumble

we’ve been eating a lot of apples recently, thanks to the generosity of one of david’s colleagues who has several apple trees and more fruit than he knows what to do with. a lot have gone into our daily smoothies, some will go into a batch of apple and lemon curd and some have been made into puddings and cakes.

this crumble was a mix of apples, quince and prunes. quince takes much longer to cook than apples so, having peeled and sliced it (keep the slices in water to which you’ve added a squeeze of lemon juice so they don’t brown) i cooked it over a low heat with some water and a spoon of sugar. when the quince was tender i turned up the heat to get rid of the extra liquid, adding the apples for the last few minutes.

the prunes were added thanks to inspiration from pim. i only had a handful and dread to think how long they had been lurking in the cupboard. so, to bring them back to life i sliced them and simmered them over a low heat with a glug of px.

the crumble topping was courtesy of delia and we ate it with vanilla ice-cream (david) and cream (me).

they dined on mince, and slices of quince...

 

the owl and the pussy cat that is, we had a slightly more exotic dish of lamb shank tagine with quince!

last week, when visiting my mum and dad i raided their japonica plant (aka flowering quince) which was laden with fruit. i’ve never cooked with quince but regularly see it in many of the middle-eastern cookery books i have and am looking forward to experimenting, especially given how delicious last night’s tagine was.

the tagine was rich and full of flavour and the quince added a wonderful piquancy – an almost citrus tang.

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