SLOW-COOKED QUINCE, BROKEN MERINGUE AND SWEET MUKHWAS
SERVES 6–8
This recipe is based on a dessert
I had in Paris at restaurant Le Chateaubriand. We stood in line for hours waiting for a table. Dinner started at close to midnight and we were the last to make it in. We finished eating at three in the morning and, to this day, it’s one of the most memorable meals I have had. One of the courses was a single lightly charred plum, its flesh covered in mukhwas (Indian candied fennel seeds). I’ve never forgotten it – it was so simple, yet so complex. I have offered a slightly different spin on it here. I really recommend serving this with some crème fraîche and even a squeeze of lemon juice to cut through the sweetness.
You can also just poach the quinces and omit the meringue and fennel seeds to use the fruit as a base for all kinds of sweets, from pies, tarts and crumbles, to adding gelatine and making your own quince paste.
1 cinnamon stick
½ tsp green cardamom seeds, lightly crushed
2 star anise
½ tbsp vanilla bean paste
375 g caster sugar
3 large quinces, peeled (reserve the peels), cored and cut into large chunks (keep as close to quarters and halves as you can to ensure they hold their shape)
TO SERVE (OPTIONAL)
20 g broken meringue shards
2 tbsp sweet mukhwas (Indian candied fennel seeds)*
185 ml crème fraîche squeeze of lemon juice
Put the cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and vanilla in the bowl of your slow cooker. Add the sugar, 1 litre of water and the reserved quince peels and set to the sauté function. Cook until the sugar has dissolved. Add the quince, turn the heat to low, and then cover and cook for 10–12 hours. The quince is ready when the poaching liquid looks a little syrupy and the quince is a glorious ruby pink colour.
Gently remove the quince pieces and place on serving plates. Strain the cooking liquid and reserve it for another use, such as making quince jelly. Scatter over the broken meringue and the mukhwas just as you serve. Dollop each with a generous dessert spoon or so of crème fraîche and a squeeze of lemon juice to finish. *Sweet mukhwas or Indian candied fennel seeds can be found at speciality grocers.