Saturday: Quince soup, Veal steaks on cabbage

Quince are back in the market, so it was clear I needed to do something with them. I thought about doing the compote I made last year, but then I found a recipe for a quince and ginger soup in the Le Menu archive. That settled that.

The soup is pretty simple: combine 300g quince (rubbed, cored, then cut into 1cm pieces) with 150g carrots (peeled, large dice), and 2 minced shallots in some butter with a pinch of salt. Cook for a bit until the shallots soften. Add 8dl chicken stock and 2 Tbs microplaned ginger. Simmer until the carrots and quince are tender, then puree and add 2dl cream. Serve topped with chives.

We found half price veal steaks at the Coop, so those were our protein. I did these quite simply: seasoned and pan seared in clarified butter, then served with a sauce made from veal essence, shallots, and butter. We ate the steaks atop a bed of napa cabbage that I cut into chiffonade and then gently cooked with some garlic in rapeseed oil. The cabbage was cooked, but still had some crunch to it.

As a contrast element, and because I was curious to try them, I did a Zierapfel (crabapples) compote: Zierapfeln simmered in base of water, sugar, cloves, mace, cinnamon, disks of fresh ginger, lemon zest, and a bit of black pepper until they were tender.

Finally, I did another batch of croquettes to finish off our supply of mashed potatoes.

Of course all of this amazing food was accompanied by a green salad.