Chickpea tangine with quince

I sometimes find "related links" on blog posts a waste of time but every now and again they are brilliant.  Even on my own blog.  While looking for links related to the quince muffins in my last post I was reminded of how much I wanted to cook savoury recipes with quinces.

One reason I include related links to external sites when I get time on my blog is that I really miss my bookmarkting service, Delicous, that I used for years.  When it closed some years back I lost thousands of tagged bookmarked recipes.  Every now and again I have a specific ingredient and wish I had these bookmarks to help me find recipes I have found in the past.  When it came to quinces I remember an impressive quince and manchego tart but can't find the url.

The tart was a bit fancy anyway.  I really liked the idea of quince in a tangine.  But I had already poached all my quinces.  Recipes I found had uncooked quince but I used what I had.  And it worked.  The chunks of quince in the stew were really lovely.  Then after a couple of nights it was less noticeable. 

Now I made the disclaimer that this tangine is cobbled together from checking out tangines online.  I make no claims for authenticity.  The tangine that really inspired me was an Aubergine and Quince Tangine from Allyson Gofton.  I surmised the tangine is often eaten with couscous but I could not find my regular couscous so I first ate it with fresh sourdough bread and then with pearl couscous. (I found my regular couscous after I had bought the pearl couscous.)

I didn't have aubergine but I did have a purple cauliflower that I wanted to feature.  It worked really well, even though I wanted it well cooked so it lost some of the brilliant colour.  Never mind, it is almost winter so it is too dark at dinner for any impressive photos!  I intended to use a mix of my own spices but found some harrisa and turmeric/garlic/ginger paste in the fridge so I used them instead.

It is great to find a new way to use quinces.  I added less sugar to the poached quinces than my usual.  So if I were to poach quinces I would go easy on the sugar again so they fit easily into something savoury too.  This tangine has been a good introduction to quinces in savoury food.  I look forward to trying more savoury quince recipes.

More savoury recipes using poached or fresh quinces:
Grilled cheese and quince toasted sandwich  -  Prevention
Poached quince and frisee salad with blue cheese croutons - SFGate
Roasted fruit and cheese plate - Food and Wine
Savoury quince and onions - Wonderful Ingredients
Spicy quince and apple chutney - Hitchhiking to Heaven

Chickpea, cauliflower and quince tangine
Serves 4-6

2 onions, chopped
1 carrot, sliced
1 red capsicum (pepper), sliced
2 tbsp harissa
1 tsp turmeric/garlic/ginger paste
2 x 400g tins chickpeas, rinsed and drained
400g tin of diced tomato
1 cauliflower, broken into florets
1 cup stock
1 cup chopped poached quince 
1/4 cup quince poaching juice (optional)
seasoning
parsley, for serving

Heat olive oil in a small stockpot.  Cook onion, carrot and capsicum in oil for 10-15 minutes until soft.  Stir in harissa, turmeric/garlic/ginger paste and chickpeas until chickpeas and vegies covered in spices.  Mix in the remaining ingredients, check and adjust seasoning.  Cover, bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer for 30-40 minutes until cauliflower is soft.  Serve with chopped parsley if desired.

NOTES: You can substitute apple slices for quince slices (either raw or stewed apple would work).  Couscous seems a traditional accompaniment to tangine but bread or rice would do nicely.  If you don't have turmeric/garlic/ginger paste use a couple of cloves of garlic and 1/2 tsp each of turmeric and ginger.  If you don't have harissa, you could search a Moroccan seasoning online to get an idea of the spices to use instead.

On the Stereo:
The Swell Season: self titled