Sour Cherry Sauce Food

SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Pour syrup into a 1-quart heavy saucepan, setting aside cherries.
• Whisk sugar, wine, and cornstarch into cherry syrup until smooth, then bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly, and boil until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
• Remove from heat, then stir in almond extract and cherries and cool.
• Sauce can be made 4 days ahead and chilled, covered.

CRISP-TENDER ROAST DUCK WITH CHERRY-ROSEMARY SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• Rinse the duck inside and out and pat dry. Trim any excess fat from the neck and cavity, snip off wingtips and discard. Mix 1 tablespoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl, and sprinkle the bird inside and out. Using a paring knife, make dozens of slits through the skin and fat (taking care not to pierce the meat) all over both sides and all parts of the bird.
• Put the duck breast-side up on a rack in a roasting pan and roast for 1 hour. Take the bird out of the oven, transfer to a platter and carefully drain the fat from the pan into a measuring cup (you'll end up getting 2 to 3 cups). Return the duck to the pan, prick with the knife again, turn it breast-side down and roast another hour. Repeat each hour, roasting the duck for a total of 4 1/2 hours.
• While the duck cooks, make the sauce: In a small saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon duck fat over medium heat and cook the shallots until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Add the cherries, stock, preserves, honey and rosemary, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice, swirl in the butter and taste for salt and pepper. Set aside until the duck is finished.
• After 4 1/2 hours of roasting, turn the oven temperature up to 350 degrees F, prick the duck skin one last time, salt the skin again and return bird to the oven, breast-side up. Roast for 30 minutes until the skin is nicely browned.
• Remove from the oven, tent with foil and let rest for 20 minutes. Gently reheat the sauce over low heat. Carve the duck, put the pieces on a serving platter and serve with sauce.

BACON-WRAPPED PORK TENDERLOIN WITH SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Pat dry the pork tenderloin and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, then wrap with the bacon, overlapping the slices.
• Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot, then brown the pork and shallots, 6 to 8 minutes. Flip the pork tenderloin browned-side up and transfer the skillet to the oven. Roast until the pork reaches 145 degrees F in the center, 15 to 18 minutes.
• When the pork is done, transfer to a cutting board, leaving the shallots in the skillet. Add the cherries and stock to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Stir together the cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water, then add to the skillet, bring to a boil, whisking until sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Season the sauce with salt and pepper. Slice the pork into 8 pieces, divide among 4 plates with the sauce, and sprinkle with dill, if desired.

SOUR-CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Place the cherries, sugar and cinnamon in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Stir in the vinegar. Place the cornstarch in a small bowl and stir in the water until smooth. Add to the sauce and cook until sauce begins to thicken, about 2 minutes longer. Strain. Serve over vanilla ice cream, poundcake or poached pears.

SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Pour syrup into a 1-quart heavy saucepan, setting aside cherries. Whisk sugar, wine, and cornstarch into cherry syrup until smooth, then bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly, and boil until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, then stir in almond extract and cherries and cool.
• *Available at specialty shops.

BROWN BUTTER ALMOND TORTE WITH SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• To make the torte:
• In a small saucepan melt butter over moderately low heat and continue to heat until golden brown with nutlike fragrance. (Bottom of pan will be covered with brown specks.) Cool butter to warm and stir in vanilla.
• Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan, knocking out excess flour.
• In a food processor finely grind whole almonds with flour, 2/3 cup sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
• In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat whites with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt until they hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1/3 cup sugar gradually, beating until meringue just holds stiff peaks. Fold in nut mixture gently but thoroughly. Fold in butter gently but thoroughly (batter will deflate) and spread in pan.
• Sprinkle top of batter evenly with sliced almonds and bake torte in middle of oven 35 to 40 minutes, or until it begins to pull away from side of pan and a tester comes out clean.
• Cool torte in pan on a rack 15 minutes and invert onto rack. Flip torte right side up and cool completely. (Torte may be made 1 day ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.)
• Serve cake with sauce.
• To make the sauce:
• Working over a heavy saucepan pit cherries. In pan bring cherries, sugar, and water to a boil. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to sauce, stirring. Simmer sauce 2 minutes and cool to room temperature. (Sauce may be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered. Bring sauce to room temperature before serving.) Makes about 3 cups.

GRILLED PORK CHOPS WITH SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• In a heavy saucepan boil the vinegar with the sugar over moderate heat until the mixture is reduced to a glaze. Add the wine, the shallot, and the cinnamon stick and boil the mixture until it is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Add the broth and the cherries and simmer the sauce for 5 minutes. Stir the cornstarch mixture, add enough of it to the sauce, stirring, to thicken the sauce to the desired consistency, and simmer the sauce for 2 minutes. Discard the cinnamon stick, stir in the lime juice and salt and pepper to taste, and keep the sauce warm, covered.
• Pat the chops dry with paper towels, rub both sides of each chop with the oil, and season the chops with salt and pepper. Grill the chops on an oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals for 6 to 8 minutes on each side, or until they are just cooked through. Transfer the pork chops to a platter and spoon the sauce over them.

CHICKEN WITH SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• CHICKEN~.
• Brush the chicken with the soy sauce.
• Place a slice of lemon on each breast and season with the pepper. Line a tray with foil and grill chicken (b.b.q. works well also) until chicken is tender and serve the chicken with the sour cherry sauce.
• SAUCE~.
• *Drain the pitted black cherries and reserve the juice.
• Place vinegar and sugar in a saucepan, bring to boil, and cook stirring constantly until mixture caramelizes.
• Blend the cornflour with 2 tablespoons of cherry liquid, and put the left over juice into the saucepan with the stock, rinds juices, cherries and liquid, cook another 3 minutes.
• Add cornflour paste stirring until combined (with no lumps) and thickened.

HONEY-LACQUERED DUCK WITH SOUR CHERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Put 10-12 sage leaves into a small saucepan with 1 cup of water and bring to the boil; simmer for 7 minutes and remove from heat; remove leaves and allow to cool.
• Wash the duck out and pat dry with paper towels; season generously with salt and put on a plate in the refrigerator to air-dry for 1 hour (2 hours is even better ;-) ).
• In a small saucepan, combine sage infusion, honey, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce and bring to the boil; boil at medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes until mixture becomes slightly syrupy and is reduced to 2/3 of a cup; pour 1/3 cup+ 1 tblsp into measuring cup and keep remainder in saucepan.
• Preheat oven to 415F°.
• Put duck in roasting pan, breast-side-down and roast for ½ an hour (drain fat off, retain); turn duck breast-side-up and roast ½ an hour longer (drain fat off again, retain); brush duck with the honey glaze and continue roasting 15 minutes; after the 15 minutes, turn duck so that it is breast-side-down again and brush with more honey glaze, do this once more after 15 minutes then turn duck breast-side-up again, brush with glaze and roast for a final 15 minutes; in all, the duck will have roasted a total of 2 hours and have had 4 glazings, 1 up, 2 down, and the last one up again; remove roaster from oven and allow duck to stand for 10 minutes while you finish the sauce.
• Pour off the fat you have retained into a small container (duck fat is great for frying potatoes!) and pour any accumulated duck juices into the saucepan containing the remaining honey glaze; add the cherries and any accumulated cherry juices as well as the cinnamon and bring to a boil; boil for 7-8 minutes, or until cherry sauce has become slightly-thickened and syrupy (if you want your sauce slightly thicker, you can sprinkle 1/2-3/4 tsp of cornstarch over cherries).
• Carve duck (in our case, this just means quartering the duck), and serve with the sour cherry sauce.
• Note: I have a special double-lined roaster, with one inclined tray with a hole in it fitting over a classic pan, this allows the fat to drain off the roasting meat, drip through the hole, and gather in the pan underneath; if you do not own this type of pan, use a classic roaster but drain fat off roasting duck more often.

MEATBALLS IN CHERRY SAUCE APPETIZERS

Steps:

• FOR THE MEATBALLS: Prepare sauce and set aside.
• Mix meat ingredients well and shape into 3 dozen small balls. Brown slowly in skillet without added fat. Drain well, add to sauce and simmer gently about 10 minutes. Serve hot with cocktail picks.
• FOR THE CHERRY SAUCE: Drain cherries from a 1 pound can or from a 1 pound jar and put syrup in large saucepan. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Cut cherries in half and add to mixture. Cook, stirring, until clear and slightly thickened.
• Woman's Day.

SOUR CHERRY VODKA

Steps:

• Put the cherries into a 1-quart Mason jar, and cover with the sugar.
• Seal the jar and shake it several times, until the cherries are well coated with sugar.
• Add the vodka, reseal, and shake the jar a few more times to mix.
• Set aside in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks.
• Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a 4-cup glass measuring cup.
• If desired, transfer the liqueur to a decanter.
• The Sour Cherry Vodka should be ready to drink immediately and has a shelf life of 2 to 3 months.