Rainier Cherry Sorbet

Cherries -- glistening happy orbs of deliciousness. I love cherries, all kinds. But if I had to pick a favorite, it might be Ranier Cherries, with their skin a soft, pale yellow with a hint of pink, like they're blushing. They're the sweetest of the cherries, great for eating on their own.

A few weeks ago at the farmer's market in Mt. Pleasant, one of the sellers had a few quarts of Rainiers. I bought one, planning on eating the entire quart on my own as soon as I got home.

When I got home, though, I decided to look around and just see if anyone had any good recipes for desserts with Rainier Cherries. The answer is no, not really. Almost all recipes are for Bing Cherries, the deep red kind. This was a problem I could fix.

It was hot out, so I decided some kind of ice cream or sorbet would be perfect. I started with David Leibovitz's recipe for Cherry Sorbet and adjusted it, lessening the sugar to make up for the sweetness of the cherries and scaling it down for the one quart of cherries. The result? Pink, light and perfectly sweet.

Adapted from David Leibovitz, The Perfect Scoop (LN: I highly recommend this book, BTW)

1 quart Rainier Cherries, stems and pits removed
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp kirsch or a few drops of almond extract

Place the cherries, water, lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes until the cherries are soft. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Using a stick blender, puree the cherry mixture. (LN: Alternatively, you could place it in a blender to chop up.) You can either puree all the way or puree and leave a few chunks of cherry in there, as I did.

Pour into a glass bowl and refrigerate until well chilled. Place in ice cream maker and use as directed. (If you don't have an ice cream maker, see this post about how to make ice cream without one.)

Eat immediately -- it will be soft like frozen yogurt -- or freeze for 2-3 hours until hardened some and serve.

Stewed Cherries (with stems)

Cherries, for the lazy.

Today CCO told me he liked my blog because I often repeat myself, like a fugue. I couldn't take offense. It is true. I do repeat myself, particularly concerning my love of cherries. Often I don't make things with my cherries because I eat them immediately after returning the market. A couple weeks ago, my mom bought me an enormous 3-lb crate of cherries. That I could not eat all of immediately, so I decided to try some of the recipes I'd filed away for such an occasion.

This recipe, frankly, is genius. Part of the reason cherries are so hard to cook with is because of all the stemming and pitting required. The last time I made a cherry pie, I think I spent more time pitting than doing anything else. But this recipe does not require pitting. In fact, you are encouraged to skip the pitting and serve the cherries with stems still attached. The recipe recommends serving as a dessert with creme fraiche or whipped cream. I've decided this is even better as a breakfast treat with plain Greek yogurt.

From the Atlantic food blog, "Cherry Season Made Simpler" by Sally Schneider

Eat Rating: Awesome.
Difficulty: Easy. No pitting required.

1 lb cherries, stems and pits attached
2 tsbp to 1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp water
1/2 vanilla bean (LN: I subbed 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)

Place the cherries, sugar and water in a medium sautee pan over medium heat. If using sweet cherries, use on the lower end of the sugar. If they are sour cherries, increase sugar to 1/4 cup. Add the vanilla, cover and cook for about 2 minutes, until the cherries have started releasing their juice and the liquid has started to turn reddish. Remove the lid, turn up the heat to high and cook stirring occassionally until the cherries are tender, about another three minutes. They may start to split. At this point, the recipe suggests removing the cherries and cooking down the syrup. My syrup was done, so I just turned off the heat. Serve with creme fraiche or whipped cream or yogurt, dunking each cherry in cream before eating.

Orangette's Cherry Bread Salad with Goat Cheese

All covered with (goat) cheese...

I promise that one day soon I will get over my obsession with Orangette's new cookbook. But not yet.

I love cherries. A lot. I actually get really excited when I go to the store during cherry season. I have a somewhat gross story that illustrates the extent of my cherry love. Since this is a food blog, I will refrain from telling it, but it did involve me losing a toenail.

When I saw this recipe in Orangette's book, I knew I had to make it as soon as cherries came into season. I went to the store this weekend, and they had gotten their first shipment. I controlled myself and only bought one bag. You could tell they were early season cherries, possibly even from a greenhouse, a little sour, not like the sweet summer ones I love. But they did work their magic. I ate half the bag as soon as I got home.

The other half, I saved for this salad. It was worth the sacrifice.

Orangette recommends adding several handfuls of arugula to the salad. I sort of hate arugula (sorry, Barack Obama), so I left it out. The salad is perfectly fine without it, but if you don't dislike arugula, you might considering adding some in.

Eat Rating: Awesome. I think I would eat this every day if CCO wouldn't boycott.
Difficulty: Easy. This would be substantially easier to make if you own a cherry pitter. (Sadly all my friends just mocked me when I asked for one for my birthday.) But you can just as easily pit cherries with a knife.

From "A Homemade Life" by Molly Wizenberg

1/2 lb cherries, pitted
6 oz white bread, preferably day old (LN: We used half of a baguette I bought that day and it worked fine)
Olive oil
1/4 tsp crushed garlic
2-3 tsp balsamic vinegar
3-4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
Arugula (if that's your thing)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Tear the bread into bite-sized hunks, lay out on a cookie sheet and lightly sprinkle with olive oil. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes until you have lightly toasted crouton-type things.

Put about 1/3 of your pitted cherries in a bowl and crush them with the back of a spoon/fork to release the juices.

When the bread is finished, let cool for a minute, then place in a large bowl with the garlic and toss to coat. Let cool a minute. Add the cherries -- crushed and whole -- and toss again. Sprinkle with 2-3 tsp of balsamic vinegar. (I went with 3, she recommends 2) Add 1 tbsp of olive oil and the goat cheese and toss again. If you're using arugula, add that in now and toss to mix. Serve immediately.