On Sunday evening Síle and I headed on our usual perambulation of the village, one of the joys of autumn and winter as in the summer it is just too hot.

Now in the course of the walk we go through a small cleft in the valley which has a late flowering quince tree and usually keeps a few quinces for us at this time.
We got five firm downy beauties.

Now we have been lucky with our supply of quinces this year, lots growing in the hedgerows and our friends Barry and Mary have given us some from their garden in the village here, so for once I think I have enough Jelly to last out.

I thought it was a good time to try out a recipe I have been thinking of doing for a while.

Here is the Wikipedia entry:

Dulce de membrillo or Carne de membrillo in Spanish, marmelada in Portuguese, codonyat in Catalan, cotognata in Italian, is a sweet spread or a dessert (quince paste, quince jelly, quince candy or quince meat).

Traditionally and predominantly from Portugal, Italy (exported when the South of Italy was Catalan) and Spain, dulce de membrillo is a firm, sticky, sweet reddish hard paste made of the quince (Cydonia oblonga) fruit.[1] Dulce de membrillo is also eaten in some other countries of America, such as Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay.

Dulce de membrillo is made of quince fruit, sugar and water, cooked over a slow fire. It is sweet and mildly tart, and similar in consistency, flavor and use to guava cheese or guava paste.[2] It is sold in squares or blocks, then cut into thin slices and spread over toasted bread or sandwiches, plain or with cheese, often served for breakfast or as a snack, with manchego cheese or mató cheese. It is very often used to stuff pastries.

The usual classic recipe is to peel and core the fruit, cut it into cubes and cook it , in water, until soft.
Because they contain most of the pectin you also include with the cores and skins ( in a muslin bag for easy extraction. )
I, of course , think I know better, and being the proud possessor of a Mouli Legumes (available for a few Euro in any supermarket here and in cookshops in Ireland)I decided to do it the easy way.
If you dont have a Mouli (and you should !) you can use a strong sieve and push it through.

Now before any Irish readers think I am just dangling unavailable carrots about with talk of quinces I offer three alternatives, freely available in Ireland or England, with which you could make Membrillo Paste.
The fruit of the Japonica makes an excellent quince substitute, I have used it several times, I am also convinced that crab apples treated the same way would produce a most interesting paste and, if all fruit fails, welcome the humble apple- I padded out my quinces with some Granny Smiths here and they did it no harm.

Here is how I made it.

First give the quinces a rub under the tap to remove any grey fluff.
Now cut into small cubes, skin core and all.
Cover with water and simmer slowly for about 30 minutes until very soft.
(They can take longer if a little unripe)

Now put the fruit and juice through the mouli (or push through a sieve)
Using a fine blade will trap all the skins and the pips.
Measure the amount pushed through and add three quarters of its weight in castor sugar, ie 750g of sugar, for 1 litre of pulp extracted.

If I was using apples I would add the juice of a lemon at this stage.
(In fact, no matter what fruit you use, the juice of a lemon at this stage is no harm, it is untraditional but adds a little acidity)

Now put the sugar and pulp in a saucepan, bring to the boil slowly until the sugar is dissolved and then continue to simmer slowly , stirring all the time, for another thirty minutes.
The mixture can stick very easily so you want to be extremely vigilant with the stirring, particularly in the edges of the pot.
Be careful also with the little volcanic eruptions which happen from time to time.
The erupting paste can burn like lava.

You will know it is ready when the paste leaves a definite trail when you draw your wooden spoon through.

Now line a deep swiss roll tin with nonstick paper and pour in the paste and then leave it set.

Once set like a firm jelly cut it into squares and wrap each in non stick paper.

Kept in a fridge they say it should last for several months.

It is absolutely delicious served in thin slices with goats cheese or even with blue cheese.
I am going to be investigating other uses as well.