Cranberries, pomegranates and quinces are magical ingredients around Christmas time, and their perfumed scent will fill your kitchen.
The wonderful thing about being an absolute glutton every Christmas is that tradition doesn’t so much allow for such behaviour as demand it: at this time of year our ancient ancestors, enduring the cold and dark of the bleak midwinter, invented comfort food – with bells on.
Just as the coloured lights and decorations bade people to forget the lack of sun, rich pickings on the table reminded everyone that the good times would return. Which is why fruit and nuts have always been important parts of Christmas cooking. Some, like the soft bounty of summer, are still preserved today in the form of dried berries, chutneys and mincemeats.
But some are seasonal, in more ways than one. Cranberries, quinces and pomegranates are winter fruits, but with their gaudy shapes and colours they also look like something you could hang off a tree.
Pomegranates are exotic interlopers. Centuries before they became a trendy fruit juice, these stunning orbs were a gift to the West from Persia. Quinces and cranberries are more at home in the chilly north. The Native Americans introduced the cranberry to the New World Pilgrims. The swampy cranberry farms in the US today are a stunning sight, but they do grow wild in this country.
Quinces also thrive happily on the British Isles, not that you would know it. Their popularity here waned in the 18th century, and today they are usually found in Greek or Turkish greengrocers. In September I visited a stunning orchard on the Isle of Wight. Standing shyly on the edge of a field full of apples, like someone waiting for a dance, was a quince tree. Its fruit was already lemon-yellow, fragrant and downy. There was a time when quinces grew wherever you found apples or pears, and not by chance. They add a rosy blush and a subtle perfume to apple pies and crumbles, and because they contain an unrivalled amount of pectin they make excellent preserves. Among the many legends surrounding this fruit is the theory that it was the first to be cooked, leading to the invention of jams and marmalades. Indeed, it is as a preserve that most of us know it, but in the Middle East it is also added to meat stews and tagines, anointing such dishes with its sweet-and-sour headiness.
All three of the fruits in the recipes below will work in sweet or savoury dishes. We all know cranberries complement the festive roast, so here you will find them in an unusual fruitcake instead. Pomegranates will stud a simple feta salad elegantly, should you wish to serve something lighter over the holidays. Even if you don’t get around to the compote, grab a handful of the unusual fruits and let them languish rather beautifully in a bowl, filling your kitchen with their perfume while you get on with dinner.