Cuisine: Vegetarian

Here we are for part 2 of the quince basic recipes. Assuming you have already cooked your quince fruit and want to use them for the quince cheese, we start directly. If you have raw uncooked quince fruit, please read the post about the quince jelly and use the fruit pieces you do not need for this recipe.

First you have to strain (pass?) the quince pieces, to get a fine pulp. I use my Kitchen Aid with the strainer attachment, but you use, whatever you have. A stainless steel strainer should do the job. And you will have a nice arm workout while passing the quince through the strainer.
Now weigh the pulp and mix thoroughly with the same amount of sugar. Put everything in a non-reactive pot on the stove and heat up. Do this quite cautious, because of the great amount of sugar the pulp will burn quite fast.
Let simmer for about an hour, stirring as often as possible. But be careful, because the mass will act like lava and bubble and  burns like hell, when you get hit.
You know, that the quince cheese has cooked enough, when it has thickend and starts to come off the walls of your pot. This may take more than one hour.
Prepare a heat proof container, like a glass baking dish, that you won’t need for some time. Pour the hot quince paste in the container and spread out evenly. Let cool, and cover with baking paper or sandwich paper and store ideally somewhere nice and warm, like close to your heating or in your boiler room. I guess you can also store it in a dry cupboard. Leave it there for about one week or maybe longer. The time the quince cheese needs to set depends on the amount of time you cooked it, as well as on how thick it is in the container.
To check, if it’s ready, you can pull a little bit on the edges, if it comes off the walls easy and has a completely firm jelly-like texture, it is ready to eat. Don’t be irritated if it hasn’t set after a week. I usually let it stand for 3 weeks, because it keeps forever. In my fridge is still some quince cheese from last year, tasting perfectly well.

Enjoy with cheese, like jam on bread or use it in your pastries.

I love quince, they smell great, they look very nice, and they are one of the rare things you can only get, when they are in season.
This is why I am going to have a quince-special here on my blog!

One of the first things I did, when I got my garden, was to plant a quince tree. So my quince fruits are in season now, and I am having a hard time to use them fast enough, before they go off.
This is one minor problem wih quince, you always have to cook them, you can’t eat them raw.

First thing I do when the quince fruits are ripe, I cook quince jelly and with the remaining fruit pulp, I make quince cheese (dulce de membrillo). This is a natural pairing, because for the jelly you only need the juice and I could never bear it to throw away the complete fruit pieces, so I use them for the quince cheese.

The exact amounts of water, sugar and the rest depend on the quantity of juice you get after cooking the quince, so I cannot give you more details in the ingredients list.
First you have to rub the fuzz off hte quince, I usually do this over the sink, simply by using my hands. But you can also use a kitchen towel. Then wash them thoroughly.
Now comes the heavx part: cut the quince fruits in about 2–2,5 cm pieces. Use the biggest, sharpest knife you can find in your kitchen, but please be careful with your fingers. The quince fruits are very hard, and you may need to use a lot of weight on the knife to cut then. Do not remove any pits or the skin. They help with the gelling process later.
Put everythin in a big, non-reactive pot (stainless steel or enamel), cover with water and bring to a boil.
As soon as everything starts to boil, I reduce the heat to minimum and let them simmer for about 20 min. This should be enough to soften the quince and release their juices to the water.

To cook jelly, you usually need cold juice, so just leave the pot with everything on the stove to cool down and proceed the following day or whenever it is cool enough.

To start with the jelly strain the quince pieces through a fine mesh colander, but keep the juice, because this is, what we need first. Put the quince pieces in a plastic container in the fridge and leave it there until you got enough time to cook the quince cheese. Or maybe you already have other plans for them? They will keep for about one week.

Measure your cold quince juice and put it in a non-reactive pot. If you want to use raspberries as well, weigh them and put them in the pot as well. For jelly you have to use a bit more than 50% of the weight of your juice, usually it is 700 ml juice and 500g jam sugar 2:1. Also add the amount you need for your raspberries.
If you have a lemon at hand or some citric acid, you can add it too. I think, this is not necessary to taste better, but it keeps the colour fresh :-)

Mix very well with a wooden spoon and bring to a boil. As soon as it boils reduce to a simmer and let cook for a minimum of 4 minutes.

Prepare your glasses and fill with the jelly as soon as it is ready. Fill the glasses up to the rim, but make sure to keep the rim clean. Close the glasses and turn them bottom up,  allow to stand for at least 10 minutes.

I really love dried tomatoes!
And whenever I get the chance to make them myself, I am thrilled.
This year I had plenty of cherry tomatoes and an even smaller variety called „Gelbe Johannisbeere“ (translates as yellow currant). They are really the size of red currants, only in bright yellow, and they taste like tomatoes.

When making dried tomatoes, I find it quite difficult to catch the right moment, before the tomatoes are too dried out.
So this time I made only semi-dried tomatoes. Which means, they are already more intensive in the flavor and sweeter, but you still have to keep them in the fridge.

This is what I did:

First preheat your oven to 100°C.
Then wash and pat your tomatoes and the thyme dry.
Cut the tomatoes in half and put them on a baking tray, cut side up.
As you can see on my photograph, I used a tarte pan, because I didn’t have enough tomatoes to cover a big baking tray.
Now sprinkle with the thyme leaves, pepper and salt and drizzle the oil over the tomatoes.

Put the tray in the oven and let cook for at least 3 hours.
I usually turn off the heat after three hours and let the tomatoes sit in the oven until the next morning.
If you think they need some more time, just turn on the oven again, or after the three hours, let them cook longer.

They should be nicely dried on the cut side but still moist in the center.

First I thought there is no need to add this recipe here, because everybody knows these potatoes anyway. But while reading a cookbook, I realised, there are also so many recipes in there, I thought everyone knew. So I decided to post my rosmarin oven fries today.

This is my version of the classic rosmarin oven potatoes.
They changed into fries, while cooking them a couple of times with friends (thanks, Patty) and are now crispier and faster cooked through.

Preheat the oven to 190–200°C.
Thoroughly wash the potatoes and cut away all the dark spots.
Depending on the size of your potato, cut it in 1 cm thick slices and again in 1 cm thick sticks.
Now all you have to do is, place them on a baking sheet, season generously with salt and pepper, add the rosmarin, drizzle with the olive oil and mix very well with your hands. Make sure that all potato chips are coated with the seasoned oil. Now put the baking sheet in the oven and let cook for about 20 min. Using a spatula turn over everything, and cook again for at least 10 min, maybe you need to toss the chips once again. I like them quite dark and crispy, that takes about 40 min.