Coings

My tajine cookbook included a recipe for "coings" which had me quite baffled. Thank heavens for the internet which told me they were quinces. It is the quince season so I experimented on our old friends.
The quince which looks like a distorted pear is a devil of a fruit. They needed to be peeled,cored and quartered but they were resistant to peeling being harder than a swede. The paring knife was not up to quartering or coring and I had to use my main kitchen knife which was a bit scary at the coring.Then as the recipe book said they discoloured horribly to a nasty dark brown but miraculously colour was restored when heated in butter. The end result was very eatable so here is the recipe.

Lamb with quinces and apricots.

Lamb lean in chunks
2 diced peeled onions
375 ml water
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground coriander
stick cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne or equivalent in harissa or other hot sauce
3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
smidgin of powdered saffron or if unavailable colour powder
salt and black pepper to season100g dried apricots
3 tablespoons castor sugar
a quince per person
100g butter

Place the lamb, half the onion, water and the spices in a casserole dish. Bring to the boil and then turn to a low heat and simmer for an hour.
Meanwhile peel, core and quarter the quince. Fry in butter for 15minutes with the rest of the onion and add the apricots and sugar. If you want the tajine really sweet you can add some honey as well. Add the mixture to the casserole and simmer a further half hour.
Add more chopped fresh coriander to serve.

The tajine should be quite dry, check towards the end of cooking to make sure it does not burn. The meat should be tender and infused with the spices.




Lamb Tajine with Quince and Apricots



Uncooked quinces.