As summer transitions to monsoons, there is a brief window for bright red cherries. “Picking the boxes with the best fruit involves a bit of a guesswork,” said food columnist Nandita Iyer in a Lounge story (2020). She added: “Look out for boxes with dark red, evenly coloured cherries and avoid the ones where the fruit is more yellow or has specks of red.”
After cherry-picking the best boxes, store the fruit well. To do so, wash them thoroughly in ice-cold water, dry and refrigerate. At this point, do not remove the tiny green stem. These will last for a week to upto 10 days. If you manage to resist the temptation to eat them all, use them to make desserts. Here are three easy recipes with cherries:
No churn, eggless ice cream
Shivesh Bhatia makes preparing desserts at home an effortless task. Along with classics, he shares tons of eggless recipes with expert insights on how to elevate them without breaking a sweat. Case in point is this ice cream with cherries and chocolates that looks fancy and tastes even better.
Mini vegan cakes
Almond and cherries lend themselves wonderfully to desserts, and a combination of the two is a treat for vegans. With coconut oil, soy milk and almond meal, these moist mini cakes take less than 30 minutes to prepare from scratch. These will taste best with vegan ice cream or make for perfect accompaniment with tea on a cozy rain-soaked evening. Turn off social media notifications, log out of Netflix and enjoy them by a window while relishing the petrichor.
Classic cherry clafoutis
A French clafoutis is like a flan and best enjoyed warm; what could be better on a rainy day when it’s slightly chilly. Chef Billy Parisi’s recipes on YouTube are always on point and often he offers helpful suggestions by recommending substitutes. In this video, he shares detailed steps for a clafoutis recipe that includes anecdotes on how it came to be.
