Peter Quince and Ardent Pepper: a romance
Sep. 22nd, 2014 05:17 pmSo we had not only Jean & Roger from England for Sunday hangin'-out yesterday, but also Mark from England too; and they all brought many wines, and we may have drunk them all, whoops. And a little bit extra. And I cooked a chicken with quince sauce, and quinces poached in rosewater syrup, and you will notice the common factor there; and the quinces were eaten all up, but a healthy wallop of syrup remained to me.
And this morning, after we had recaffeinated Jean & Roger and sent them up towards the Russian River (so named because of Russians, apparently, it's not a misattribution of the Rushin' River or anything like that), John bore me off in search of ghost pepper salami; and once we'd started it was quite hard to stop, so I came home with new herbs for the garden and new foods for the pantry and so on and so forth. But John also left me with a fresh supply of his home-grown ghost peppers. And Karen was out for lunch, so I had eggs-and-rice enlivened with a third of a ghost, and I am pleased to report that that much suits my tolerance very well, and I have not become a wimp after these years of less exposure.
And then I had to go out on various errands, but! I have had hot pepper jellies on my mind; and I looked at the quince/rosewater syrup, and I looked at the stub of a ghost pepper, and looking - as you know - can be a decisive action in itself. So I chopped the middle third of the pepper very finely, and mixed it into the syrup, and boiled that up and left it to cool. And now I am returned from my errands, and I dabbled a finger in the cooling syrup and sucked it thoughtfully.
And hoo, boy. What I have done here, it is a marvel of a thing. I could have a whole career as a maker of ghost pepper quince jellies, let me tell you, if I can only work out the best way to make it set. It is fiercely hot and very fruity and tolerably sweet and utterly delicious, and I could not be more pleased.
Also, I have a whole nother batch of quinces, so.
And this morning, after we had recaffeinated Jean & Roger and sent them up towards the Russian River (so named because of Russians, apparently, it's not a misattribution of the Rushin' River or anything like that), John bore me off in search of ghost pepper salami; and once we'd started it was quite hard to stop, so I came home with new herbs for the garden and new foods for the pantry and so on and so forth. But John also left me with a fresh supply of his home-grown ghost peppers. And Karen was out for lunch, so I had eggs-and-rice enlivened with a third of a ghost, and I am pleased to report that that much suits my tolerance very well, and I have not become a wimp after these years of less exposure.
And then I had to go out on various errands, but! I have had hot pepper jellies on my mind; and I looked at the quince/rosewater syrup, and I looked at the stub of a ghost pepper, and looking - as you know - can be a decisive action in itself. So I chopped the middle third of the pepper very finely, and mixed it into the syrup, and boiled that up and left it to cool. And now I am returned from my errands, and I dabbled a finger in the cooling syrup and sucked it thoughtfully.
And hoo, boy. What I have done here, it is a marvel of a thing. I could have a whole career as a maker of ghost pepper quince jellies, let me tell you, if I can only work out the best way to make it set. It is fiercely hot and very fruity and tolerably sweet and utterly delicious, and I could not be more pleased.
Also, I have a whole nother batch of quinces, so.