Stevie Parle's perfect quince crumble

This week in my restaurant I have been buying big boxes of downy quinces from Provence, southern France. They are beautiful, large, perfumed fruits that, when cooked for a long time turns a deep, luxurious orange red.

The smaller more common quince in England grows on a spiky bush that has beautiful orange blossom. This small-fruited quince is excellent, too. Though not as fleshy as its larger cousin it is often made into quince jelly. I have never been a great one for quince jelly, my family love it though. Made from the fruit at my grandpa’s house my mum makes jelly with twigs of rosemary in. They love to eat it with roast lamb.

I love making Spanish membrillo, which I like to leave chunky and coarse. First I bake the fruit whole with a bit of water in a completely sealed tray for an hour or so. Then I let the fruit cool enough to handle and pull out the seeds, stalks and hard bits of core. Leaving the skin and some of the softer tough bits. Then I weigh any remaining liquid and flesh and put it in a pan with an equal amount of sugar. Cook it on the stove over a medium heat, stirring often until it is a deep dark colour - hold your nerve when you are cooking it out, take it pretty dark. If it starts to stick, just remove the pan from the heat for a little while.

The great thing about the larger variety of quince is that there is enough flesh to bake slowly with a little bay or rosemary and sugar before eating them with cream. You can also make crumble which is really delicious.

Quince crumble

If you have a favourite crumble topping recipe use yours, I like mine but am no granny-like authority on the matter.

Serves 4-6 depending on how hungry/greedy you are

for the crumble
300g plain flour
200g good butter
150g brown sugar
a good handful of oats if you have them

for the fruit
3 large quince
200g sugar
a few bay leaves

Peel the quince and cut them into six. Remove the core and put wedges in an oven tray that fits them well, a nice ceramic one you wouldn’t mind seeing your crumble in would be good. Add the 200g of sugar, the bay leaves and enough water to just cover. Bake the quince in a moderate oven (about 160C) for a couple of hours. You can bake them for less but you’ll never get the beautiful orange colour. When red, remove from the oven, drain a little of the liquid if there’s loads (you can use this syrup as a cordial). Check the sweetness – add more sugar if you like.

To make the topping, rub the butter and flour together between your hands, until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Don’t make it too fine. I’m sure the trick is to do it pretty quickly. Chuck in the oats and add the sugar, to taste, depending on preference and how sweet the quince has ended up.

Sprinkle the crumble on the fruit and bake in a hottish oven (190C) for about 20 mins until the top is browned and the mixture cooked. Eat with a big dollop of very thick cream.