Last week when cleaning out the freezer we found a big bag of organic pitted cherries. We bought them at Costco intending to use them in smoothies, but somehow that didn’t happened. They were starting to get freezer burned so we needed to come up with a way to use them quickly.
Cherry pie? How about cherry ice cream,cobbler, compote, tart, chutney or some sort of sauce? After all our excess in New Orleans desert didn’t sound even remotely interesting, I am not a big chutney fan and sauce without a purpose seems like a waste of energy.
Fortunately, David had an idea – Cherry Preserves/Jam; something to put on toast, pancakes and waffles. He spent 2 days making it, but it was worth every second. And here is what he did.
Cherry Preserves
- Put the frozen cherries in a Dutch oven and cover them with water
- Add another quarter cup of water
- Bring to a boil and cover
- Turn the heat to low so that the mixture simmers for 4 hours.
- Check and stir the mixture every hour
- Add 3 cups pomegranate juice
- ALTERNATIVE 1: add 3 cups unsweetened cherry juice
- ALTERNATIVE 2: add 1 cup unsweetened cranberry juice and 2 cups white grape juice
- ALTERNATIVE 3: add 3 cups white grape juice
- Bring to a boil and cover
- Turn the heat to low so that the mixture simmers for 5 hours.
- Check and stir the mixture every hour
- Turn the stove off and let the mixture sit overnight
- The next morning add:
- 2 cups white grape juice
- 4 1/2 inch chunks of ginger
- Bring to a boil and cover
- Turn the heat to low so that the mixture simmers for 4 hours.
- Check and stir the mixture every hour
- Take the mixture off the stove and let it cool completely
- To make the actual preserves put the mixture into a food processor and add
- Juice from 1/2 lemon
- 2 cup unsweetened organic applesauce
- Mix well and serve
- Store in the fridge for up to one week or in the freezer for up to 2 months
You can cut the time in half, but the taste will suffer. The real trick to deep, rich flavor is letting the fruit cook and cook and cook!
What you end up with is pure fruit flavor; no sugar, additives or preservatives. And the taste is amazing! This morning for breakfast we had them on pancakes. I am hoping that David will be willing to try more fruit preserves, soon!