Christmas fever: Quince, red onion, rosemary and rosé wine stuffing

You know it’s Christmas when the queue in the Hermanus Woolworths winds up and down three aisles at 7 30 am. It’s a killer hot day, and everyone’s dashing around trying to keep the festive spirit together.

I’m also getting in on the fever. I’ve baked like a banshee today, a second batch of mince pies, a lemon and vanilla biscuit wreath, a batch of puff pastry and a few other things are ticking over. The other day I attempted to bake some Lebkuchen but they turned out rock hard. So I whipped out the gold and silver dust, and a dash of yellow raffia, and did some cookie pimpin' for the tree.

My fave thing from today is the quince stuffing I dreamed up for the half- smoked turkey tomorrow:

Quince, red onion, rosemary and rosé wine stuffing

1 red onion, finely chopped

Dash of olive oil

1- 2 cloves garlic, depending on how tight your family is, crushed

1 tablespoon (15ml) red wine vinegar

½ cup dry rosé wine

3 slices white bread, crusts removed, blended to make crumbs

40g pine nuts, toasted and roughly chopped

1. Sauté the red onion in the olive oil for a minute or so before adding the garlic
2. When cooked through, add the red wine vinegar. It might splutter so watch your face.
3. Then add the rosé wine and reduce until the liquid is nearly all gone. Add the rosemary and fry for two minutes.
4. Add the breadcrumbs and pine nuts. Season to taste with salt.

How Christmassy and curios is that reddish purple colour with smatterings of green?