I have pledged my love for Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes many times on this blog- his books are the most used among my few hundred cookbooks collection. This week I made quince stuffed with lamb-recipe comes from his Jerusalem book. I loved it when I made it last year in quince season. This week I saw some beautiful quince in the market and in a second I knew I was making this recipe again. I won’t lie- quince isn’t the easiest fruit to be working with, but it is worth it!
RECIPE – LAMB STUFFED QUINCE WITH CORIANDER AND POMEGRANATE
400g minced lamb1 garlic clove, crushed
1 red chilli, chopped
20g coriander, chopped, plus 2 tbsp to garnish
50g breadcrumbs
1 tsp allspice
2 tbsp finely grated ginger (40g in total)
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium free-range egg
4 quince
½ a lemon, squeezed, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
8 cardamom pods
2 tsp pomegranate molasses
2 tsp sugar
500ml chicken stock
seeds of ½ a pomegranate
salt and black pepper
Mix the mince with the garlic, chilli, coriander, breadcrumbs, allspice, half the ginger, half the onion, egg, 1/2 tsp salt and some pepper. mix well and set aside.
Peel and halve the quinces, keeping them in a bowl full of cold water with a squeezed 1/2 lemon, so they don’t turn brown (if you don’t have a used lemon half, add 1tbsp juice). Remove the seeds, then, leaving a 1.5cm shell, score your quince and scrape out the middle, using a hardy teaspoon. Keep the flesh you scoop out.
Fill the hollows with the lamb mix, pushing in well.
Heat your olive oil in a large, frying pan which you have a lid for. Whizz the quince flesh you kept when hollowing in a food processor, then add to your pan with the remaining onion, ginger and cardamom seeds.
Sauté for around 10 minutes until the onion has softened, then add the molasses, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, sugar, stock, 1/4 tsp salt and some black pepper. Add the quince halves to the sauce, meat facing upwards, reduce the heat to a slow simmer, and cover the pan. Simmer for around 30 minutes. At the end the quince should be beautifully soft, then meat well-cooked and the sauce thick. Lift for the lid and simmer off any remaining liquid, if necessary, for a minute or two.
Serve sprinkled with the coriander you kept back and the pomegranate seeds.
