Thursday, July 1, 2010

Tart Cherries and what to do with them?

A couple of weeks ago DD's piano teacher called to say that the blueberries in a farm nearby were ripe for picking. We rushed before they closed only to find that the blue berry picking was done by the afternoon and there were a few tart cherries and strawberries left for picking.



The bright jewel like cherries were hard to resist though the taste is not anything special or rather not something I'd appreciate, tart and slightly bitter. The strawberries turned to light ice cream while the cherries needed creative thinking.



Over the weekend I decided to make some corn muffins which is always a crowd pleaser and very quick especially on a late weekend morning. Needed something different than the usual butter or cream cheese that is slathered on the muffins and decided to make a sauce with tart cherries hoping it would pair well with savory muffins. Though apprehensive to start with the sauce turned out to be a good accompaniment with the muffins.

I am eager to know what you would have cooked up if you had a few cups of tart cherries on hand?




Tart Cherry Sauce
Ingredients
1. 1 1/2 of pitted tart cherries
2. 1-2 tbsp sugar (adjust to taste)
3. juice from 1 orange about 1/4 cup

Method
1. In a sauce pan combine sugar, orange juice and the cherries
2. On low heat let it come to a boil. Cover with a lid and cook for 6-8 minutes
3. Cool and if required use an immersion blended to break it if a back of a spoon does not work

Serve over any spicy bread

15 comments:

  1. The problem with tart fruits is they need a lot of sugar to make anything sweet out of them. So for me it will be chutneys .. the tartness stays and is loved too. :-)

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  2. Cud not resist typing inspite of A lousy iPhone keypad. We hav a cherry tree and I made cherry pickle. Ravi lovedddd it. Followed the amla pickle recipe from mahanandi . But I pitted them and sauted. Ended up kind of a thokku .

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  3. Cherry sauce looks awesome, i would like to have simply with some scoops of vanilla ice cream..

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  4. That sauce looks bright and pretty. I read the other suggestions. Pickles and chutneys do sound like good to-dos with tart cherries. My input.. hmm.. something like tamarind candy could be made too?

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  5. put them into muffins, ala cranberries!

    or make thokku - ala cranberries. :) Cranberries so make a delectable thokku.

    or make pickle ala kilaakkai.

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  6. No idea, I'd probably have donated them as the amount of sugar needed to sweeten them up is phenomenal!

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  7. I hae neve rmade anything with tart cherries, just bought from the famers market 2 kf of super yumm sweet cherries, just tha i have no time tomake any desserts with them as i have not been spending time in the kichen as it is holiday hee and the weather has been so good that we have been cycling and doing lots of things with S.

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  8. Sauce sounds delicious and lovely click of the cherries!

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  9. Chutneys and thokkus are a great idea. Next time perhaps?

    Sra, not really. I added 2 tbsp and it was sufficient to take the edge of the tartness that is all.

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  10. chutneys or the sauce like you made is all i can think of. i have never really had tart cherries before though.. i would think a cranberry recipe might be adapted well?

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  11. chutneys or the sauce like you made is all i can think of. i have never really had tart cherries before though.. i would think a cranberry recipe might be adapted well?

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  12. I haven't tried it yet but it looks sweet and good. I have one question about cherries, Is it possible to make a cherry shake with lots of ice puffs, milk and sugar? what do you think is the flavor?

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  13. Spice Rack, the sauce was not bad at all. Cherry shake would have been great absolutely.

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  14. Indo, I am going back to the mystery beans. They are called Italian Beans or Flat Italian Beans or Romano Beans. It tastes very good when you make it as poriyal பொறியல். It somewhat tastes like our Kongu avaraikkai (அவரைக்காய்). They are mostly available in frozen section all year long. Super Fresh grocery store always have it. During summer time you can get fresh beans in Korean stores as well as Giant Food and other grocery stores, but rare. Many years ago my friend introduced me (frozen form)from Food Lion (Grocery Store). Since I liked the taste I hunted for the seeds to plant in my garden and found it from Home Depot and planted it and yielded lot of them. The seeds are white in color. I think they are for vegetable dish rather than seed dish. You may google it as Italian beans or flat beans. Good luck!

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  15. elvis, thanks a lot. I know Italian beans very well. Yes and I knew only the frozen ones. I used to buy them regularly, but had stopped for a few years now and hence could not recognize them. Now I know :)

    Kongu avrakkai? you a kongu lady (or a lad) too?

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