Cherry-Chéri? – Cherry chutney extravaganza verrines with Etorki cheese
Cerises-chéries – Extravagances de chutney de cerises en verrines à l’Etorki
Cherries are finally in season and this house is a red fruit mad house, red fruits are all over, even on the rug, towels, and walls! I think in between the strawberries and the cherries, there must be about 15 lbs of those red beauties in the refrigerator. Enzo the dog and Lilou the parrotlet have been on a red fruit diet too like everyone else…I think there will be more cherry and strawberry recipes in the next coming days, for those who have a berry fetish like we do have here.
Cherry soup is a popular sweet and regional peasant soup served as a dessert where I grew up, mostly in a mountainy region called Les Vosges, it’s basically a ski area, with lots of farms and cabins, ski resorts, and many rustic restaurant offer it on their menu. The cherries are cooked in a red wine, sugar and vanilla with a flour base sauce. Due to the quantity of cherries, I might feature this one in the next coming days.
I have been entertaining lately therefore experimenting many cold soups served in verrines. I love small verrines, they make such cute and fun little appetizers. When you have tons of cherries like I do, chutneys or soups are wonderful, and call it a coincidence, but I found this deliciously pungent Basque cheese called Etorki, it’s a sheep cheese that is traditionally served in the Basque region (Pays Basque) with cherry jam as a tasting (en dégustation), so that was a no brainer, those dark cherries would turn into a jam or chutney and served with Etorki. That sweet-salty cherry chutney and Etorki cheese are simply a magic match.
Ingredients for 4 small verrines
- 400 g red cherries, pits removed
- 2 tbs sugar
- 3 tbs raspberry vinegar
- 3 cloves
- vanilla powder (or 1 vanilla bean scraped)
- Szechuan pepper
Preparation
In a medium size pot, mix cherries with cloves, sugar, Szechuan pepper, cover it and let the mixture cook for 5-10 min at medium heat, until the cherries start to soften and turn into a jam. Add vinegar and reduce for an additional 5-7 minutes. At this point, the cherries are soft and look like a jam.
Remove from the heat, let it cool and serve in small verrines, with some etorki cheese on top.
This entry was posted by silvia on June 8, 2010 at 12:58 am, and is filed under Appetizers, Express - Less than 30 minutes, Sauces and condiments, Vegetarian - dairy. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.
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Me again (smiling sheepishly) – I realize that my last comment links back to my old site. Silly me.
Anyway, I also wanted to mention that I do hope you post about the cherry soup – I have never had it before and would love to soon. I’m thinking of taking a friend who is visiting from out of town cherry picking this weekend. If we do, I’ll have tons of cherries to play with!
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Silvia,
Seriously we are like cheese soulmates…I recently used Etorki to make a decadent grown-up truffled mac & cheese…yes expensive but so worth it….Enough of that.
I would gladly take a few of these wonderful verrines off your hands. Beautiful vibrant color jumps right off the screen.
I cannot believe how much red fruit you have…you really were not kidding. Enzo and Lilou must be having a field day.
Inspired use of Szechuan Pepper…you never cease to amaze!
Cheers!
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C’est vrai les photos sont si réussies que j’avais l’impression de manger les cerises en te lisant! j’adore cette inspiration que tu as, le goût intense du fruit, et le contraste avec le fromage de brebis; que je ne connais pas d’ailleurs, mais qui sait ils en vendent peut-être à Beyrouth! tu vas m’excuser mais ces prochains jours je voyage, donc je risque de ne pas être aussi présente, donc, à très bientôt!
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Oh, how I’ve been envying those with cherries blessing their palettes lately. No need too feel too bad for me…our time Montreal is coming soon enough. My family gets together once a year at the end of June…and we have a real cherry fest. Just cherries and chat…that’s it…nothing fancy like those original verrines you’ve concocted!
I love reading about the stories behind your very creative recipes.
BTW…my little puppy ‘Sushi’ would have devoured these buckets of red right along with your two loves…great company indeed…now who’s cleaning up the mess? ;o)
Flavourful wishes, Claudia -
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Truly lovely verrines! They are such fun to make. I have the most delightful French book entitled VERRINES which I adore. Savory AND sweet.
And I’m going rather mad with cherries right now as well. Adding raspberry vinegar and Szechuan pepper to your cherries gives them so much zing and is a perfect partner to the Etorki cheese.
(Hope you pursue the cherry soup…..) -
I love learning new things from you. My cherry consumption has largely been limited to eating them fresh since I’m not a cherry pie (perhaps the most popular American adaptation) fan but I really like how the fruit is showcased in a chutney. The addition of the Basque cheese is just super.
Thanks for posting another winner!
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