Nature Update (9) - bulbuls and quinces

[anna_wing]

Or alternatively, a case of both triumph and disaster.

The Red-whiskered Bulbuls' nest got raided by a Greater Coucal! Housekeeper saw and screamed, driving it off, but not before it managed to kill one of the fledgelings in the nest. The other fledgeling managed to flutter to safety, and was retrieved by Housekeeper and placed tenderly back in the bush (after the sad remains of its unfortunate sibling had been removed). It is fully fledged, and Housekeeper saw it fluttering about in company with its parents, so hopefully it will survive.

Several people have indicated interest in quinces, so I have informed them of the availability of same, in a few months time, and hopefully we will be able to do a decent bulk order to the farmers ahead of time. Times are very hard, and should get them at least a couple of guaranteed customers. Luckily my predecessor in this office believed in being prepared for anything, so I inherited a quite unreasonable number of freezers...

Housekeeper has been making quince tart from the cut-up fruit that we froze last year. Freezing it makes the fruit a lot less rock-hard and easier to work with when it's thawed: she bakes them with raisins on a very crisp, short pastry base, with a good sprinkling of large-crystal brown sugar on top, for extra crunch and to cut the extreme sourness of the fruit. They come out a beautiful dark golden colour, since it's not in the oven long enough to turn red, like the cotignac. I don't like the emetic quantities of sugar that some recipes call for, so I'd rather leave the tart sour, and let my guests add extra sugar and cream to suit themselves. It's such a fabulous luxury, to have enough quinces to just make them into dessert...

There will be bulbuls and quinces when I commission my own hand-painted Chinese wallpaper (a scroll-length, for framing). Fruit and flowers together, because why not, and the flowers are just as pretty as cherry-blossom.

Comments

[sartorias]

That sounds like a lovely scroll in the offing.

[anna_wing]

It's on my Some Day list. Perhaps when I retire...

[shirebound]

Oooh, quince tarts sound delicious.

[anna_wing]

They are! Most recipes I've seen involve a huge amount of sugar, but I take the view that if I wanted it sweet I might as well make an apple or pear pie instead, or jam. The raisins are sweet enough on their own. And because quinces are so strongly flavoured, they can take heavy spicing. I use freshly ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom as well as the raisins, and pistachio nuts when I have them. Done as a big, flat open tart, it looks gorgeous too. I was thinking that the next time, if there's enough pastry, we could try a lattice decoration...