Late Night Quinces

An hour or so ago, I looked in the cupboard and found 3 lovely ripe quinces lurking behind the rice, and I realised that what I really wanted for Mothers'Day brunch was some nice stewed quinces to go with the french toast I'm planning, if I can be bothered to get the recipe that Maggie used on The Cook & The Chef the other night. So I got to work.

3 quinces
1½ cups of sugar
1 lemon
1 stick of cinnamon
5 cloves
3 cardamom pods
3 cups water

Heat the water, sugar and spices until sugar dissolves, and then simmer for a bit.
Halve quinces, having washed and de-furred them. Don't bother to peel or core.
Squeeze lemon juice on cut quinces (but not cut fingers).
Put quinces and lemon skins in oven proof thing with a lid. Pour over spice syrup from first step.Or put quinces into it, if you started the process in the oven proof thing with a lid.
Whack it in a pre-heated oven @120°C for ages (6 hours should do it, but longer is probably fine). Turn the quinces over a few times in the 6 hours.
When it's finished, the quinces will be a lovely colour and not too astringent. When they are cool, scoop the cores out of the halves and slip off the skin with a knife. Then slice and serve with some good plain yoghurt, or cream, or icecream, and some of the amazing syrup.
There will be syrup left over, use it wisely. You can flavour things like cream or custard with it. I like it as an ultra-decadent bircher muesli addition.