With a cherry on top
Let’s put a cherry on top of this great summer. One of those big sweet dark purple cherries that are perfect to eat as is and even more perfect incorporated in your favourite recipe. I couldn’t resist the display blocking the doorway of the grocery store this week and I ended up with half a fridgeful.
Mixed Greens and Cherry Salad with Cherry Balsamic Vinaigrette
No one will turn down a fresh green salad with strawberries or orange segments. Fresh sweet cherries do those other fruits one better.
Feta can be overpowering in a light dish but soaking it in fresh cold water overnight leaches out a bit of the salt and makes it creamier. If you’re not a fan substitute goat cheese or even shredded cheddar, whatever you like.
Pitting cherries is not that hard. Use a pitter if you have one. I cut them in half along the stone and give them a twist, just like you would an avocado. Then I use my fingers to remove the stones.
To toast pecans put them in the oven at 350 degrees F for a few minutes, stirring them around every half minute or so until they are fragrant and crisp.
This salad is plenty for four.
Cherry Balsamic Vinaigrette:
¾ cup fresh sweet cherries (about 15), stones removed
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. good balsamic vinegar, dark or light
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
½ tat. Each salt and freshly ground black pepper
Salad: 3 cups baby spinach leaves
3 cups torn iceberg or romaine lettuce
1 cup pitted fresh sweet cherries, quartered
½ cup thinly sliced red onion 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup whole pecans, toasted
Put all the vinaigrette ingredients in a blender or food processor and whiz until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Mix together in a large bowl the spinach, lettuce, cherries, red onion and feta. Toss with dressing and sprinkle nuts on top just before serving.
Cherry Sauce
This isn’t that creamy port mixture you serve in January. This is fresh and tangy and spiced just right to top a chop or chicken leg hot off the grill.
This amount is plenty to accompany six servings of grilled meat. 2 large shallots, minced
1 tbsp. butter
½ tsp. each ground allspice and cumin
2 cups fresh sweet cherries, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 sprigs fresh thyme
½ cup dry red wine
2 tbsp. white or red wine vinegar 2 tsp. grainy hot mustard
½ tsp. each salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fry shallots in butter in a heavybottomed pot until soft. Add allspice and cumin and cook another minute. Stir in cherries, thyme, wine and vinegar and simmer together about 10 minutes. Whisk in mustard, salt and pepper, discard thyme stalks and serve. Cherry Chocolate Almond Bars I couldn’t write a cherry column and not include a sweet. These are slightly cakey, slightly chewy, and massively delicious.
Make these in the pot you melt the butter in—you don’t even need a mixer.
The combination of chocolate chips, coconut and nuts is very forgiving. As long as you have about 1-1/2 cups in total use any combination you like.
If you use the big dark cherries that are ripe now you will need about 25. If you are too generous they produce too much liquid so hold back a bit.
Serve these warm with ice cream or chilled as take-away treats. ½ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs 1 tsp. almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt, (omit if using salted butter)
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cup sliced almonds
1 mounded cup fresh sweet cherries, seeded and halved
Heat butter over low in a large heavy-bottomed pot until it is golden brown. It will bubble up like crazy at first as the moisture evaporates, then it will become foamy. Stirring constantly to scrape up the brown solids on the bottom of the pot, cook a little longer until most of the foam subsides. Cool to lukewarm.
Add brown sugar, eggs and almond extract to butter and beat vigorously with a spoon until smooth. Stir in flour and baking powder, mixing just until there are no white streaks. Fold in chocolate chips, coconut and almonds until evenly dispersed. The dough is quite stiff. Gently stir in the cherries.
Line a 9-inch baking dish with foil, leaving the ends to hang out over the pan so you can lift them out. Grease well. Spoon in the batter and smooth the top.
Bake at 350 degrees F 30 minutes or until golden brown and the sides are just starting to shrink away from the pan.
Cool at least 10 minutes before cutting into 16 pieces