Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh. Silk Road Cooking. Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2004 p. 267
My in-laws came for a visit over the Thanksgiving holiday. Of course, they live at some distance from us and therefore stayed a few nights at a nearby hotel. They were extremely helpful in minding the Fearless Baby while I was preparing for Thanksgiving. Naturally, they needed something to eat while they were here. I needed to clear some fridge space, since half my fridge is taken up by quinces at this point. My in-laws are very abstemious eaters and specifically requested that I serve something extremely light the night before Thanksgiving. They also believe that eating fruit after a meal aids digestion and prevents the phenomenon known as "food coma." I figured that I might as well have some fun and use some of my quinces.
As it turns out quinces have a special place in my father-in-law's heart. He grew up in rural Greece and likes to tell stories about quince orchards stretching as far as the eye could see, where you could just reach out and grab them at will. (If the owner of said orchard is reading this, I'm pretty sure that the statute of limitations has long since run out.) I was happy to be able to bring back a few of those memories for him.
I made a few changes to the recipe, as well you might expect. I used more quinces than originally called for. Squeezing the quinces as instructed in the recipe did not yield enough juice for the recipe. Fortunately I had anticipated this and reserved the water in which the quinces were cooked. I added a little cardamom to the recipe and I replaced the rosewater with orange flower water. I'm a huge fan of rosewater personally, but I know that not everyone shares my passion. Orange flower water seems to be perceived as less cloying. The results were a big hit. Everyone seems to have enjoyed the granita, which was a refreshing way to end a meal.
Quince Granita (serves 6 generously; approx. $1.54/serving)
2 pounds quinces, washed, cored and sliced
6 cups water
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise and scraped
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 tablespoon orage flower water
Equipment:
- Ice cream maker
- Fine strainer
- Saucepan
- Container with lid
- Cheesecloth
- Colander
- Bowl
- Tie the quince slices up in the cheesecloth and put them in the saucepan.
- Add six cups water. Bring to a boil.
- Cover, reduce heat and cook 1 hour.
- Drain the pot, reserving the cooking liquid.
- Set the colander over the bowl. Put the quinces in their cheesecloth into the colander and allow them to drip into the bowl until they are cool enough to handle.
- When they are cool enough to handle, squeeze the bundle with your hands to extract as much juice as possible. Ultimately you want to end up with 4 cups of juice. If you cannot get 4 cups of juice out of your quinces, top it off with the reserved cooking liquid.
- Return the juice to the pan. Add the vanilla, cardamom and lime juice along with the sugar.
- Heat gently and stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Transfer to a container with a lid. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- When you are ready to finish the granita, strain the contents of the container into the bowl of your ice-cream maker. Add the orange flower water.
- Churn according to the manufacturer's instructions - mine was 25 minutes.
- Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until ready to eat.
