Monday, 5 November 2007

duck and quince

Today was the first day where the temperature dropped below zero. Home projects have therefore become activated. To keep the body and mind sane. What is on our agenda? Homemade quince tincture! Michal even bought scales this year. The bastards are really hard to cut and have a shitload of seeds. But the effect is worth it. The fermentation processes will last at least a couple of weeks. Just in time for snowy evenings and visiting friends. We have enough spirit (98% pure alcohol) and quince fruit to make about 15 litres of liqueur with it. It is delicious and not at all strong (about 25% alcohol) once the whole process is completed. Michal’s dad is a master at it so he has been getting plenty of phone calls from his son who is not always sure of the proportions.

first you cut, then you remove the seeds, then you slice


then you weigh - 1 kilo quince : 1 kilo sugar


you then place sugar and quince slices and let it sit for a couple of days
before you pour the spirit in - the sugar reaction forces all the juices to flow!

And since we are on the topic of winter culinary delights, lucky we visited Michal’s cousins who live in the country the other day. They have plenty of farmyard animals including some 20 cows (they run a small dairy farm). Hospitable as all hell they gave us a freshly killed duck. City folk know bugger all about real healthy food out in their parts, hence the poultry present. We baked it on Sunday (we finally got an oven) and my was it delicious. Our first duck and such success!

now you see it waddle?


now you don't!


first you boil a kilo of fresh beetroot -
then you shred and stew with lemon and fresh cracked pepper and salt -
a must with any duck


and here are some animals we did not kill



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

in oz you cant get the 98% alcohol, unless you are mates with a chemist, so would the recipe work with other fairly neutral spirits (ed vodka?).

i do appreciate your blog's no nonsense approach to food and where it comes from. i can't recall any plastic packaging for any of the food presented.

if you can smuggle some of the quince quencher into australia in february id be happy to take a sample

h

Michael said...

I still dream of the plum liqueur ...

justyna said...

I'll find out about the vodka substitute. As for the duck, Michal's aunt did put it in a plastic bag when she gave it to us. Will smuggle through some quince quencher if:
a) it turns out ok
b) I don't get arrested by customs
c) it doesn't break in my backpack

edd said...

knowing you mate, option c is probably most likely to happen!!! i recall many a trip to the chemist during my youth and always wondering why my mum was purchasing such large amounts of metho in dodgy transactions...it all makes sense now!

Malunini said...

You actually can get this prime ingredient in Aus...and it is appropriately named "Polish Spirytus"
...you can get it in a variety of potencies - either 80 or 95%
Its not sold in all bottlos but Dan Murphys usually has it... the 98% is a bargain (hmm) at $50 for 0.5L and I have used it to put an Aussie spin on this polish recipe by using passion fruit...It also works great with apple and cinnamon ... use Absolute to dilute the flavor if you find it to sweet...
...and during the move i found about 1.5L of my apple "nalewka" that i made about a year ago - score

justyna said...

Raf: thanks for informing the others about where and for how much! Tops work. I like the passionfruit number! Will sample maybe in Feb, yes?

Hugh: I spoke to Marek last night and he said you can substitute with vodka. You will be able to taste less the real fruit flavour but it's doable. Remember: half glass concentrated juice for one glass of vodka. I shall post updates with the following steps anyway.

Mike: plum season over, dregs have been drunk. Until next year!

Edd: my dad used to have a distillery set up in the garage and would explain to me what all the hoses and pipes were for. There was such a 'shh don't tell the neighbours' vibe in there.

As for the bottle breaking, well yes. I remember once bringing Polish beer for Anthony from one of my o/s trips. Beer broke. Backpack staturated. Plenty of beer stink