bits & pieces

[kaberett]

Food: I am now within hailing distance of Usefully Achieving The Effect I Want with both profiteroles and sourdough. All hail Leiths How To books, which include explanations of why the various steps are important, in terms of what they actually do. (I suspect I am also, therefore, going to achieve Actually Neat Shortcrust Pastry Cases, which has been a vague goal for a while now, which will make me feel very smug about culinary skill acquisition this year.)

Unwise purchase decisions: the Waitrose bargain bin contained... quince. At two-thirds off. And A enabled me. Which is why the fruit bowl now contains seventeen quince, which with I am going to have to do Something. (Yes, yes, quince jelly and membrillo, I know -- but I've already got some of each made by my mother, so really I'm going to have to poach them or make sorbet or something.)

Allotment: bin continues merrily creeping its way back up to 50degC and making space for me to put more things in the top, thank goodness, and I've got some of the first Actually Nice compost out of it (while dragging out some more of the undigested first base layer) in order to repot the lavender A bought for 50p from an unmanned stall on the seafront on the south coast, the day we went down to pick up a friend's wheelchair. (Dear friend: he didn't have 50p in change so actually put in a quid... which is going to support the local gang show. In a delightful moment of serendipity.) Additionally and furthermore, the squash look no worse (and tentatively a little better); more of the spinach are showing true leaves; and I'm making more substantive new progress on weeding again (i.e. clearing more beds, rather than "just" doing maintenance weeding).

Movement: as of tomorrow I am going to be at three sets of six reps each on gym stuff, and I'm up to five minutes of stationary bike at both beginning and end (and get to up the resistance another notch, I think). cesy is also very kindly physio-buddying with me via the magic of IM, so I'm getting a bit more dopamine out of doing various exercises (because they are Seen and Recognised, etc etc etc).

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

Quince is excellent in tagines. Sorbet sounds fantastic.

[kaberett]

... RIGHT. I have always used dried apricot in tagines, but yes, obviously quince; excellent, that will be a meal plan for the near-ish future.

[angelofthenorth]

quince makes excellent wine, and a companion to Apple in crumbles

[kaberett]

Time to visit my mum again and get some of the apples from the garden, then :-)

[rydra_wong]

so really I'm going to have to poach them or make sorbet or something.

Put in stew/braise with meat? Also sorbet sounds amazing.

[kaberett]

Ruby Violet provide a sorbet recipe in their cookbook!

The suggestion above of tagine is one that is simultaneously obvious and would not have occurred to me, so that is probably going to happen. :-) As per your second suggestion most of my other cookbooks (other than "poach for dessert") suggest meat, and there's a limit to how much I think I can adapt away from that, but "... tagine, obviously" is def useful :-)

[rydra_wong]

Whoops, forgot if you're vegetarian/vegan. OTOH, now I'm thinking about how quince might work in a stew/braise with root vegetables ...

Ooh, I wonder what happens if you roast quinces?

[kaberett]

Apparently good things! Not necessarily root-veg rather than, like, poached/baked-pear things, but Good Things. I will experiment with at least some of them (once we've got through the experimental profiteroles and the tiramisu...)

[rydra_wong]

I was pondering on the Tube whether quinces might go well with something salty/soy-sauce associated. A friend likes to fry slices of halloumi with soy sauce ...

[kaberett]

I mean, halloumi and pineapple is excellent, so I see no reason that halloumi and quince wouldn't be... perhaps I also want to roast some of it up and dump it in a couscous salad with halloumi/pomegranate/pistachio/etc :-)

[rydra_wong]

That seems like a strong plan!

[aldabra]

I've had quince and yellow split pea stew, with pork, the last couple of nights. Works fine; doesn't taste as appley as I hoped, and doesn't go pink.

Seventeen is a lot. But they appear to keep; the one I had this weekend had been hanging around since the previous time I made this stew a couple of weeks ago, and hadn't visibly changed.

[kaberett]

oooooooooooh. I do like yellow split peas.

and yeah, I'd not have got this many if I didn't know perfectly well that they kept :-)

[pseudomonas]

Is quince wine an option?

[kaberett]

In principle, yes; in practice, I haven't Made My Own Alcohol before, we've already got some quince liqueur in the booze cupboard, A doesn't like it, and I'm not getting through it fast enough to be worthwhile!

[swingandswirl]

Quince is not a food of my people, but this roasted quince recipe looks amazing.

If you'd like a gym cheerleader via IM, let me know - time zones SHOULD be okay, I think!

[kaberett]

yessssssss quince.

gym cheerleader: for actual gym work I'm still only going once a week and always (so far) with me_and, so cheerleading for that is less of a thing. I'm potentially interested in more "ugh I need to do some physio" buddying but I'm mildly concerned I'll do an overwhelm if I end up ~feeling like I need~ to tell multiple people individually every time I do a thing, and I'm not sure group chats would work as well for me, so *flail*? Thank you for the offer; I will think about it!

[ewt]

My usual recipe for quinces:

-buy one
-put it in the fruit bowl
-just pick it up and smell it every once in a while for several months until I give up and put it in crumble.

I hadn't considered buying seventeen of them so that I could cook sixteen and smell one.

I bet they'd be good in chutney.

I wonder about quince syrup -- use it as squash, or maybe drizzle it on Greek yoghurt.

[kaberett]

ooooooooooooooh good shout on chutney, that's another reason to go to Cambridge and bring back Some Apples.

Syrup probably would work wonderfully and I should consider that further.

THEY WERE ALL IN THE SAD REDUCED FRIDGE at 39p each rather than £1, and I did say "maybe I should leave six of them for the other people who... go to Waitrose on a Sunday afternoon and want marked-down quince???" but A was all "they will probably just go in the bin." and put them all in the basket. SO.

[ewt]

A was totally right and buying 17 quinces is very reasonable in the circumstances.

I have noticed that the Waitrose in Enfield gets much better price reductions than the one in Stratford.

[fyreharper]

No useful suggestions but - quince!!!!!!!!!!! <<<333

[kaberett]

yessss