Quince Paste

Ingredients:

8 quinces
250ml water
juice of one lemon
sugar

Method:

Peel and core quinces and cut into chunks. Place in a large stainless steel pot with the water & lemon and cover with a lid.

Cook over medium heat until quinces are tender - about 20 minutes.

Pass quince and liquid (if any) through food mill or food processor.

Weigh puree, place it back in the pot and add sugar - 3/4 of its weight.

Cook over moderate heat, stirring every few minutes, until paste looks deep red in colour and comes away from side of the pot. This should take about 2-3 hours.

Transfer paste to 24cm cake tin lined with paper and leave to dry outside until very firm to touch.

Alternately you could place it in a low oven at 30ºC (if you oven doesn't go that low you can put it on the minimum temperature with the door ajar until the right consistency is reached).