Over the past few summers, cherry-based cocktails have become something of a signature for me, to the point whereupon being proposed to in mid-July a few years back, I immediately began pulping and freezing cherries for use in our wedding cocktails the following October. Fresh cherries have a cruelly short season, and I do my best to make the most of every phase from sour to Rainier to Bing. Each has a distinct level of sweetness and depth of flavor and is complemented by different suites of ingredients. Rich, dark Bings stand up to wood smoking and full-bodied lemon and limeades, but tender, young sour cherries seem a natural fit for a subtly refreshing sweet iced tea. Oh - and booze.
At first I thought, there's no way I'm taking a bunch of cherries and rubbing them on my arms and legs, but then I saw that you have to eat them.
Our sister blog That's Fit has a post about how eating tart cherries can actually help you if you have soreness after a hard workout. They're a natural anti-inflammatory, if you eat them twice a day, that is. This news comes via research conducted at the University of Vermont.
We've been baking cookies like crazy around these parts, all December long. I'm giving my rolling pin and baking sheets a break today and dipping into the archives to bring you some cookies from our archives.
Looking for a recipe that will look gorgeous on your buffet? These Cranberry-Cherry Icebox Ribbons are alternating stripes of red and white and are awfully nice to look at and will be tasty to boot.
Cherries Jublie is one of those foods that I've heard of but never had, like Baked Alaska or Pig's Feet or Mutton. Is Cherries Jubilee something that you set on fire, or is it the name of a stripper from some movie or TV show I once saw?
Well, I told you about the cherry smoothie I made from the summer cherries I put into the freezer for safe-keeping. A lot of good those will be to me in the fall since I subsequently used them all for a liquid breakfast every morning thereafter until they were.
What I didn't tell you is what I did with the cherries I kept fresh on the counter. You, my Slashfood faithful friends, suggested clafouti to spare my fingers the chore of pitting cherries, as well as a multitude of recommendations for what I should do with the result of my gluttonous run at the market. I took the advice of a few and made...
Remember when I asked all you, my favorite Slashfoodies, for some suggestions for what to do with a glut of cherries back in July? There were some great suggestions in the comments, with quite a few cheers for clafouti (because I bemoaned having to pit them), cherries jubilee, and among a bunch of other ideas.
Well, I took some of your ideas over the last month and made some stuff, which I'll be sharing with you this week. First up, it's a cherry smoothie, which I realize is pretty boring, but it had to be done because 1) life for the last month required speed eating which often translates into liquid lunch, and 2) with that many cherries, I had to put at least half of them in the freezer. Of course, I pitted the entire basket first (using a knife - very painstaking), spread them onto a tray, then placed them into the freezer. The next morning, I was so excited about having frozen cherries, I blended them into a smoothie so I could enjoy them right away.
There's no real recipe here, but I'll let you know what I put into mine because I felt like a million bucks after drinking it. Blend together: ½ c. nonfat yogurt, 1 c. frozen cherries (pitted, duh), and enough pomegranate juice to make it the consistency you want (I used about ½ cup). I don't add any sugar, though a friend suggested a drizzle of honey. Pour into a tall glass, drink up, and you'll feel like a superhero.
Stay tuned for slightly more exciting things I did with the cherries!
Several days ago, I asked you, my beloved Slashfood readers, for help on what to do with about a bazillion cherries I had picked up. One of the overwhelming responses was for a cherry clafouti - the French dessert-t thing that's made with a pancake batter and fruit. I am not yet telling you what I am doing with the cherries -- it may or may not be a cherry clafouti -- but until I post that, here are eight cherry clafoutis from around the food web for your viewing, reading, and perhaps eating, pleasure:
I have about a bazillion (yeah, so I exaggerated when I said "gazillion") cherries sitting on my countertop, and I have no idea what to do with them besides wash them and just eat them straight out of the bowl. I have used dried cherries in baking and during the autumn, and lately, I have been throwing frozen cherries into my morning smoothies. However, I have never used fresh cherries in cooking.
The reason I have yet to cook with fresh cherries, I think, is that the idea of standing in my kitchen squirting cherry red juice all over my kitchen floor and my clothes, possibly knicking my fingers on a fruit knife, and basically staining my fingers a lovely shade of red for days to come -- pitting fresh cherries -- does not appeal to me. If I'm going to go to all that effort to take out the stones, I'd just as soon pop that cherry into my mouth standing right there.
So Slashfoodies, I am asking for your help. Share with me, your favorite recipe using fresh cherries that will most definitely make my time and sanity pitting cherries in the kitchen worthwhile, will you? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert -- anything!
Sam Breach writes on her food blog, Becks n Posh, and while I love reading her charming stories about her adventures in and around San Francisco, what always gets me about her blog is her photography. How gorgeous is this photo?
The Pavlova has a tan, yes, and while purists might argue that it should be white, Sam made these with brown sugar, topped them with whipped cream, the first cherries of the late spring season, and caramelized almonds. I really do love the light brown color of the pavlova, making it so much softer looking with the cream and cherries!
Every year there are a handful of ingredients and flavors that find their way onto almost every single restaurant menu in the country. Last year, two of the most popular flavors were pomegranate and chipotle. This year, the menu trend-spotters have already made their top five predictions, some of which are bolder than before and others that are merely extensions of existing trends.
Functional flavors - Beyond green tea and pomegranate there is a whole world of functional food that will become more widely used. Açaí, acerola cherry, red wine and red tea will all step more into the limelight.
More Latin flavors - Chipotle is still popular, as is regional Mexican (from Oaxaca and Jalisco), but new flavors will step up, with more influences from Central and South America.
Sweet and savory- The pairing of salty and sweet (or savory and sweet) really hit a home run with packaged foods last year, but more mainstream restaurants will be offering salted caramels or herb-infused ice creams than in the past.
Expected flavors, unexpectedfruits- Why stick with orange when you can use blood orange? The same goes for choosing Meyer lemons, Buddha's hand or other citrus over plan lemon. Twists on popular flavors will make the food seem more exotic, without taking a big risk by radically changing the flavor.
More Spice, Less Heat - Instead of the overt heat of chipotle, ancho, and jalapeño, there will be more Indian and Moroccan spices added to menus, including curry, cumin and cardamom.
Maraschino cherries are perserved, sweetened cherries that are dyed red and flavored with a little bit of almond. Sticky sweet, they aren't the most popular of fruits, but there are at least two things that they are perfect for: garnishing cocktails and topping off desserts. These Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes from Cupcake Bakeshop look perfect with their garnish, which seems much more appropriate for their flavor profile than sprinkles would be because it lets a potential cupcake eater (if, for example, these are out on a dessert table) know what kind of cupcake he or she should expect. They probably still won't expect to find cherry pie-like filling in the center of each vanilla cake, but it will help.
If you're interested in using little treat cups for your baking, as show in the picture above, take a look around a craft store, which is where I found mine. Don' fill them quite as high has you might fill regular cupcakes because they are more likely to overflow, but otherwise they should work our just the same as normal cupcake papers.
From looking at this scrumptious Cherry & Lemon Cream Cheese Tartlet from Lex Culinaria, you would never guess that it qualifies as a "light" dessert. The first trick employed in lightening the recipe was changing the crust. The tart crust is made from crunchy baked phyllo dough instead of a richer, more fattening shortcrust pastry. The smooth, creamy filling uses a low fat cream cheese and, of course, the beautiful fresh cherries topping the tarts off are full of vitamins and antioxidants. In this dessert, there is a great combination of flavors and textures. I already want to try the recipe - but there are so many other "light" applications for this kind of tart shell that I don't think it'll be the only time that I use the trick this summer.
Is Fear Factor your favorite show, but you don't like
the idea of eating icky things enough to apply? Do you have
small children who think it's fun/entertaining to eat variously gross foods? The Popsicle company is coming to your rescue! Unlike the Cherry Chip Bada Bing! ice cream
sandwiches, which tie in to the hit Sopranos show via name alone, the new Fear Factor
Pop-Ups try to get the eater involved in the spirit of the program. The sour cherry flavored pop has an
eyeball gum-ball atop it and the sour watermelon flavor is coated with "sour lemon slime." There are only
four pops in a box, but that should provide more than enough ammunition for your child to gross out the neighbor's kids
- at least for one afternoon.
With the endearing name of Chocolate
Cherry Chip Bada Bing!, the hit HBO show, the Sopranos, has its own ice cream flavor. The ice cream sandwiches are made up of
two large chocolate chip cookies with a cherry flavored ice cream in between. The sides of the sandwich are rolled in
chocolate chips.
Strangely, CoolBrands International, which released the ice cream,
trademarked the name several years ago. When HBO began to hint around that they were looking to expand the Soprano's
brand, the coincidence of the frozen novelty sharing the name of Tony Soprano's strip club was too great to overlook
and HBO signed up. Product placement and a small percent of the profits are rumored to be part of the deal.
Currently, the sandwiches only seem to be available in the New York tri-state area. where they retail for
$$4.29-$4.89
I know, they're not local, they're not in season, but I picked up some cherries the other day. Most
likely, they were from Chile. The flavor wasn't spectacular, and since the texture was slightly firm, I think that my
best bet will be to make some cherry salsa. I've been doing this ever since I saw the recipe in a June 1994 issue of Gourmet. Their
suggestion to serve it with pork tenderloin is a great choice, but I've often just made the salsa. It works great on
grilled chicken or fish too. Perhaps the best use I've found is using it on a baguette with some of the cold leftover
roasted pork. I've heard all sorts of tips and tricks about pitting cherries, but really, just get a cherry/olive
pitter. You'll be much happier, and cleaner.
Cherries Jublie is one of those foods that I've heard of but never had, like Baked Alaska or Pig's Feet or Mutton. Is Cherries Jubilee something that you set on fire, or is it the name of a stripper from some movie or TV show I once saw?
Every year there are a handful of ingredients and flavors that find their way onto almost every single restaurant menu in the country. Last year, two of the most popular flavors were pomegranate and chipotle. This year, the menu trend-spotters have already made their 
Is 
With the endearing name of 
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