Weekend Herb Blogging #257 - Quince

It is the 4th time that I am allowed to host the Weekend Herb Blogging, that is taking big steps towards its 5th Year! A weekly blog event created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and now managed by Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. I am looking forward to your entries!


Here is what you have to do: prepare a recipe using herbs, vegetables, plants, edible flowers or fruit on your own blog, and email the link over to me ( almondcorner [at] gmail [dot] com) before Sunday the 31th October.

Post about any herb, plant, fruit, vegetable or flower - read the rules to ensure that your post does qualify. Please include a link to both this post and to Haalo’s announcement post.

Send an email to almondcorner [at] gmail [dot] com with WHB#257 in the subject line and the following details:

Your Name
Your Blog Name/URLYour Post URL
Your Location
Attach a photo: 300px wide

Emails must be received by:
3pm Sunday - Utah Time
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8am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time
or you can use this converter to find out the corresponding time in your location.

You can also check out who’s hosting for the rest of the year at this post and find information about hosting WHB.

It is great to back to host this great event after such a long time! I decided to post about quinces, because this year is the first time when I can say I do love quince. It is such an aromatic fruit and it is absolutely beautiful. The quince is the sole member of the genus Cydonia and native to warm-temperate southwest Asia in the Caucasus region. It is a small deciduous tree, growing 5–8 m tall and 4–6 m wide, related to apples and pears, and like them has a pome fruit, which is bright golden yellow when mature, pear-shaped, 7–12 cm long and 6–9 cm broad.


The fruit was known to the Akkadians, who called it supurgillu; Arabic سفرجل safarjal "quinces" (collective plural). The modern name originated in the 14th century as a plural of quoyn, via Old French cooin from Latin cotoneum malum / cydonium malum, ultimately from Greek κυδώνιον μῆλον, kydonion melon "Kydonian apple". The quince tree is native to Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Pakistan and was introduced to Syria, Croatia, Bosnia, Turkey, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine and Bulgaria.In Europe, quinces are commonly grown in central and southern areas where the summers are sufficiently hot for the fruit to fully ripen. They are not grown in large amounts; typically one or two quince trees are grown in a mixed orchard with several apples and other fruit trees. Charlemagne directed that quinces be planted in well-stocked orchards.The seeds contain nitriles (RCN), which are common in seeds of the rose family. In the stomach, enzymes or stomach acid or both cause some of the nitriles to be hydrolyzed and produce HCN (hydrogen cyanide), which is a volatile gas, not likely to remain at the scene for long. The seeds are only likely to be toxic if a large quantity is eaten. (source:wikipedia) Well, no need for the seeds in my recipe for quince mousse.


Ingredients:
3 quinces
1 piece of cinnamon
1 mace
2-3 cloves
1-2 cardamom pods
400 ml water
100 g sugar
2 egg yolks
38 g cold water
50 g sugar
1 gelatine leaf
100 g cream

First prepare the pâté à bombe: bring a pot of water to the boil and whisk together the egg yolks with cold water and sugar and put into the pot with the simmering water (the water should touch the pot with the egg yolks-sugar mixture) and cook while whisking for 40-50 minutes or until it is thick. Let it cool, sieve and beat it with a mixer until foamy. Peel quinces and poach them in a syrup cooked of 400 ml water and 100 g sugar together with the spices and let the quinces cool in the syrup. You can also preare them the day before and leave quinces in the spicy syrup overnight. Puree and set 85 g aside, the rest can be served with the mousse. Soak gelatine in cold water and stir it into the warmed puree. Let it stand for 5-7 minute and stir in 56 g of the pâté à bombe, then fold in the beaten cream. Pour the mixture into forms and refrigerate for 4-5 hours.