Tapas Revolution's Omar Allibhoy shows how easy it is to make Spanish membrillo, or quince jelly. Membrillo goes perfectly with cheese, especially Manchego.
From the book
Omar Allibhoy
Spanish classics made easy
Recreate all your favourite Spanish dishes
Simple, budget-friendly recipes
Buy Book
Introduction
My family has a house in the mountainsnear Madrid and it is where we all congregateevery Christmas. We are completely spoiledin that you only have to walk out of the houseto come across wonderful natural ingredients:mushrooms, asparagus, game, fish, nuts, wildfruits and berries. As you may well imagine,I’m very used to cooking with all of these wildingredients and Christmas is a great time formaking preserves for the year ahead whichare shared between all the family members.
So, back to the point, here is my foolproofrecipe for quince jelly.
Read moreRead less
Ingredients
| 3kg | quinces |
| 600g | caster sugar |
| juice of 1 lemon | |
| 200ml | water |
Method
1 Wash and core the quinces and then chop into3-cm pieces. You should end up with about 2 kg
of prepared fruit. Put in a large heavy-based panwith the sugar and place over a medium to high
heat. Stir the fruit from time to time so that itdoesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan. Quincesare quite hard and unlike other fruits such asstrawberries, peaches or oranges, don’t softenor release any liquid as quickly.
2 After about 15 minutes you will see the quincestart to caramelize – at this point reduce the heat
to low. Continue to cook at this low heat, stirringoccasionally, for 1½ hours. After half an hour the
quince will start to soften; after another hour itwill become more like a paste. It should be dark
brown in colour and have reduced to a quarter ofthe original amount. Add the lemon juice and
water and cook for a further 10 minutes.
3 Your jelly is now ready. Pour into clean, sterilizedjars; if properly sealed you will be able to keep for
at least a year. Alternatively, you can pour into abaking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Once it
has cooled and set firm you can turn out and sliceinto squares.
SUGGESTION
You can also make a softer, more spreadable paste,instead of this firm jelly. Simply add 2 glasses of
water to the paste along with the lemon juice andpurée with a hand blender until smooth. Continue
to cook for another 5–10 minutes and then pourinto sterilized jars as before.
OMAR’S NOTE
Membrillo goes very wellwith cheese – in particular ourfamous Spanish Manchegocheese. I also like to eatmembrillo with fresh cottagecheese and olive oil and oftenuse it in cheesecakes too.
Please note: Moderation is enabled and may delay your comment being posted. There is no need to resubmit your comment. By posting a comment you are agreeing to the website Terms of Use.
