Poached quinces - a winter's antidote

If the reader prefers, this can be read simply as a recipe. One that coaxes ruby-red tenderness from the hard and inedible fruit.

When I first came across it in Gourmet Traveller, I was desperate for an antidote to the winter blues.

Winter is not the kind of fair you buy a ticket to. Like it or not, you’re in attendance, with or without your scarf and gloves. The daily orchestra of rain, with its endless wind chorus, sets sadness even in the most joyful of souls. This questionable composition plays on for months, until its natural end.

Deep in suburbia, I was ready for battle. Armed with vanilla, a cinnamon quill, and lemons, I set my eyes on a pair of quinces.

I needed burgundy from the virtues of poaching. Instead, I found happiness - and a taste of spring itself.

Ingredients

From Gourmet Traveller with some small changes.

800g organic coconut sugar

1 vanilla bean, split

2 lemon, cut in half

2 cinnamon quills

3 star anise

2 or 3 large quinces

Method

Place all ingredients apart from the quinces in an ovenproof pot and bring to the boil. 
Peel, cut and quarter the quinces, remove the cores.  Add to you a pot and bring to a simmer. Place in oven until quince are the desired tenderness and colour (between 2 to 3 hours for a ruby colour). To get a deep burgundy, leave them to cool completely overnight in oven.