Cherries on Top

I have always loved cherries, and during cherry season, I’ve been hankering for a delicious homemade cherry pie. When I was growing up in Midwest pie country, my mother made a killer cherry pie, though often it was filled with canned cherries. More recently, on vacations to Wisconsin and Michigan in the northern Great Lakes region, those visits fortunately coincided with cherry season, and I was able to snag some pie made with fresh cherries. Yum.

Summer bounty

It’s another cherry season, and the fresh fruit is abundantly available here in Massachusetts. Our local supermarket is offering sweet cherries on sale. I’m contemplating making my own cherry pie, but there are lots of other imaginative uses. Mrs. Farmboy has been using the bounty to make cherry syrup to jazz up a cold glass of sparkling water. It’s a simple matter of removing the stems from a couple of pounds of cherries, then boiling them for 10 minutes with a third cup of sugar and a quarter cup of water. Press the solids in a sieve with a potato masher and voilà. This refreshing drink is similar to a cherry shrub (minus the brandy) that was popular in the 19^th century.

Cherries have been described in cuisines since the first century B.C.E., and the fruit was probably cultivated in the Mediterranean before then, according to the Oxford Companion to Food. In the 17^th century, English colonists brought cherry trees to New England. (Remember the legend about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree?) Currently, the U.S. is the second-largest producer in the world.

Today, cherry dishes take advantage of both the sweet and sour varieties that are available. In Germany, the black Morello cherry in cherry jam is an essential ingredient in black forest cake, as well as cherry strudel. In Dalmatia, Croatia and Italy, maraschino cherries are made into liqueur.

Meatballs, salads, soups, lettuce wraps – and pizza?

What if you want to try something other than a dessert or a liqueur? Meat dishes with sour cherries exist in dishes from England to Persia, and the addition of cherries to meat recipes offers that ideal combination of savory and tart. Take this Syrian dish from Aleppo. Ground meat (usually lamb, but beef or pork would work just as well) is mixed with grated onion, cinnamon, and nutmeg for meatballs, which are browned, then simmered in a sour cherry sauce made with pomegranate molasses.

During barbecue season, cherry sauces are a great accompaniment to grilled poultry, pork, lamb, and fish. Here’s a good example. Sprinkle pork chops with salt, pepper, and rosemary, then grill them over a medium heat. Meanwhile, make a sauce of leeks, sautéed in butter, then slowly cook them with broth, port, vinegar, and cherries. When the pork chops are done, put them in the pan with the sauce and simmer for about 15 minutes, and that’s dinner. For vegetarians, how about trying mushrooms pan-fried in butter and garlic, with a splash of Madeira or Sherry and a half cup of dried sour cherries. Serve over mashed potatoes, and you have a fantastic meal.

In Northern and Eastern Europe, cold cherry soup is popular, usually as a first course. Salads made with cherries are found all over the world. This Michigan cherry salad makes use of apples pecans, cherries, and gorgonzola cheese with a raspberry vinaigrette and cherry preserves for a refreshing summer meal. Here’s a quick dinner: cherry-chicken lettuce wraps that take advantage of chunks of ginger-flavored chicken mixed with carrots, cherries, scallions, and almonds wrapped in lettuce.

What else? How about a balsamic cherry, feta cheese, and prosciutto pizza? Cherries pickled in balsamic vinegar top this pizza along with feta, caramelized onions, and prosciutto.

What can I say? I really like cherries. How about you?

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