Cherry Pickle

When life gives you cherries do you make pickle or jam?

In either case, you first need to pit them. I always fancied buying a cherry pitter but never had the need to buy one. I usually eat cherries straight up, but last weekend I brought tons of fruit home, and I am quite sure that it would be impossible to finish it all by simply snacking. So, I have plans to preserve them a couple of different ways, and that means I would need to pit a whole lot of them. So, here comes the Cherry Pitter to the rescue! Phtk, phtk, phtk, one by one they popped out - hah, I am easily pleased.

One batch of it went into a pickle that I adapted from a recipe in 'Usha's Pickle Digest', written by Usha Prabakaran. More on that book sometime later.

Although I started with the quantities given, I changed the quantities quite a bit when I started measuring out the ingredients because most of the spices seemed too much to me. The end result was really good. It is a pickle that will please people who like pickles. By that I mean that it has just the right amount of that salty, spicy and sour taste which is the hallmark of Indian pickles. This inspite of drastically reducing the amount of salt, spice and oil given in the recipe.

Apart from that joyful pitting activity, the recipe is quite simple. Here is what I did, with volumetric measurements instead of the orginal ones in grams, except for the cherries.



Ingredients:

500 grams cherries
1 teaspoon + 2 Tablespoons pickling salt, or kosher salt
1 teaspoon methi (fenugreek) seeds
1/4 teaspoon hing (asafoetida)
1 teaspoon + 4 Tablespoons of oil
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 Tablespoons jaggery
1 1/2 Tablespoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 Tablespoons lime juice

Method:

Pit the cherries. This is also called stoning the cherries. Marinate the cherries in a teaspoon of salt for a day. Roast the methi and hing on medium heat for a few minutes and powder them together.

Heat one teaspoon oil, add mustard seeds, and when they start to pop, add turmeric, cherries, and jaggery. Stir it together for a few minutes until the cherries start to soften, and some of them break down.

Add the remaining salt, oil, and dry spices, and continue cooking until the oil starts to separate (I did not see this happening, but I knew it was done when the oil got really hot). Add the lime juice, and remove when the mixture starts to bubble.

It is ready to eat as soon as it is cool. The book says that this pickle can stay upto 2 months.

Cherry Cobbler

I mentioned earlier about picking tons of cherries and lugging them home from the orchard. After I gave away a few packets of these fresh cherries to friends, one of the things I made right away was Cherry Pickle. I liked it so much that I made another double batch of it, and gifted some of that too. Most of the remaining ones were used for snacking and as a natural dessert, but I also wanted to cook something with them. So while searching for recipes that use fresh cherries, I found this Cherry Cobbler, and decided to give it a try. It was absolutely delicious. Of course, if it was anything less than that, I would not have blogged about it. It is worth mentioning that it was even better the next day, warmed just a bit, so it is something that can be made in advance too.



Since the cherries I used were very sweet, I reduced the amount of sugar in it, and added a dash of vanilla extract for flavor. I made only half of the recipe, which is something I really regreted.

Noting the recipe here for reference, along with a few changes.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

2 cups pitted sweet bing cherries
1/3rd cup white sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
a few drops of pure vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place the butter in a 9x13 inch baking dish, and place in the oven to melt while the oven is preheating. Remove as soon as butter has melted, about 5 minutes.

Place the cherries into a bowl, and toss with the 1/3rd cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and baking powder. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until well blended, then pour the batter into the pan over the butter. Do not stir. [Note: I think it might not hurt to stir this together a little. The butter at the edges is what causes the brown lines along the side of the pan]

Distribute the cherry mixture evenly over the batter. Do not stir.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. A toothpick inserted into the cobber should come out clean.

This is a hastily taken picture before gobbling.



Archana's cherry lassi was on the radar, but that will have to wait now.