black cherries

[Nicos]

I've just defrosted and heated some stoned black cherries and just can't understand why they are so tasteless- when fresh they are so juicy and sweet.

I've bought cherries from M&S in the past and cooked them and they've been just as bland...WHY???..what am I doing wrong????
I've got about 20lbs more to get through and need to know where I'm going wrong folks???!!!!

[veg4681]

Sorry not much help....add sugar . Eat them fresh as much as you can, only glazed them for dessert recipe (no cooking). Hmmmmm....Black forest gateau? Is there such thing as preserved cherry in alcohol?

[Flummery]

I think the red cherries are better cooked. The black are sweeter so come over as more bland in cooking - the acid cherries are better cooked. In my opinion any road up!

[wellie]

OK, Speshly for you Nicos......

I've put my knitting down (!) and gone and got this recipe for you speshly - if you haven't yet got Sarah Raven's GARDEN COOKBOOK, just get it, there's no excuse this side of Aceville not to have it, in my opinion.....
The orange pastry should help to add extra flavour,
and she uses the sweet black cherries? and what I'd do honey, is to defrost and drain your cherries, soak them overnight in cherry brandy, then drain them well, drink the cherry brandy and make this tart with the fruit:

CAROLINE'S CHERRY TART

For 6-8: about 600g stoned and halved cherries
Creme fraiche or cream, to serve

For the orange pastry:
75g butter, plus more for the flan dish
170g plain flour, plus lots more for dusting
50g icing sugar
grated zest and juice of 1 orange

For the frangipan:
110g butter
110g caster sugar
2 eggs
25g plain flour
110g ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 180c/gas 4.

To make the pastry, mix all the ingredients together in a food processor, or by hand. The mixture will look quite wet and sticky, but don't worry. Mould it into a ball and put it in the fridge for 30 mins.

Butter a 22cm flan dish or tart tin and roll out the chilled pastry, using masses of flour on your rolling surface (Nicos, I'm going to try this pastry myself soon, and I'm going to try using Cornflour instead of flour on the work surface, as I think flour will just get absorbed into the pastry and still make it stick, personally) and Sarah says that the secret is to roll the pastry very, very thin, and use any leftover pastry to make jam tarts with....!

Pierce the bottom of the flan base with a fork and cover with greaseproof paper and rice or baking beans and bake blind for 10 mins. Take from the oven, leaving the oven on, remove the rice or beans and paper, and allow it to cool slightly.

To make the frangipan, cream the butter and sugar, and add the eggs one by one, then the flour and almonds. Put the frangipan mixture into the pastry case and then fill to the brim with the cherries.
(Because of the extra liquid, in alcohol form, it may be a good idea to put the flan dish inside a deep roasting tin or something, as it's bound to bubble up and over the edges of the dish?!)
Cook for 20-30 mins in the oven until the frangipan has turned slightly golden.
Allow to cool on a wire rack and then ease out of the case.
Serve warm or cold with creme fraiche or cream.

In my opinion, with all those other flavours going on in your mouth, you won't even notice that you've got frozen cherries in there?!....

[Nicos]

Cheers Wellieblobs!!

Thats really kind of you to find that recipie spesh for me!! I'll give it a go for this weekend.
Santa request for the book has been loudly hinted at (please assure me that 'Sarah the Coat' is NOT wearing one on the front cover of her book??? - whisper the answer as we don't want to upset Mr Grief)

[wellie]

NO SHE ISN'T, but

...she is on the January/February page, pages 23, 67, May/June, and 99, difficult to tell on page 168, then again on pages 297, 329, 383, 392 and 399.
Oh sh*t, I've gone and spoiled the surprise now......!