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Friday, 19 June 2009 |
Cooking with Northwest Cherries
It’s hard to imagine anything better than a bowl of fresh ripe Northwest cherries served with nothing more than a few drops of the water in which they were rinsed with one or two of their own bright green leaves for a garnish. Served alone, cherries are one of nature’s perfect foods. But once you start combining cherries with other great ingredients in your own kitchen, you’ll uncover a whole series of intense and magical flavors that may not have been immediately apparent.
Cherries not only taste great by themselves, they bring out the natural goodness in other foods, hot or cold and when they rub shoulders with sweet and savory foods we already love, they taste even better.
Northwest cherries, like most stone fruits, provide a well-rounded flavor with enough acid to balance their natural sweetness. So they can be served with savory dishes as well as sweet ones:
* Toss pitted cherries in salads, just as you would pieces of tart apple.
* Sizzle cherries in the pan-juices of quick sautés of chicken or pork.
* Toss cherries into an impromptu salsa to pair with grilled steak or fish.
* Try a fresh or frozen Northwest cherry as a cocktail garnish.
And don’t neglect Northwest Cherries’ potential in the pastry kitchen:
* Cherries freeze beautifully and frozen, they become a quick sorbet.
* Baked into a tart, bold dark cherries assume a more refined character.
* Dark cherries will form a rich layer between cake and crumb topping.
* Pitted and left in whole rounds, they become the ideal topping for cake.
Try them in some of my favorite recipes:
Northwest Cherry Salsa
Pan Seared Pork with Northwest Cherries
Cherry Sorbet
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