CHERRY PRESERVE

My husband is a frugivore. He loves fruits and can survive on fruits. My kids have also (luckily) inherited this trait. We never have problems when we go out on long journeys. Because we are never intimidated by the quality of food available in the highways or even in the good eateries in the cities. We can survive happily on fruits.

My husband is a very well known and a welcome face in the fruit mart for the amount and variety of fruits he buys. Whenever the new fruit of the season arrives, the mart owner promptly informs him.  Last week, during one of his visits to fruit mart, my husband called up to ask me if I was interested in buying fresh Cherries. Cherries?  Yes we get fresh and sweet Cherries here at this time of the year from Himachal.

My answer was in affirmative and I instantly thought of making Cherry Preserve. And yes! The fate of the cherries was sealed. Even before the cute little carton reached home, it was decided that I would make Cherry Preserve and Cherry Cake.

Pitted and stemmed cherries

Cherry preserve on  a slice of home made bread.

My kids were thoroughly involved in jam making. The Cherries were sweet and a lot of them disappeared while being stemmed and pitted by my little ones!

Here is the recipe of the preserve made from the left out cherries-

CHERRY PRESERVE

Ingredients

Whole Cherries

Sugar

Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

(Quantity of sugar and lemon juice depends on quantity of cherries)

You will also need

A steel plate kept in the freezer

Bottles to store the preserve

Method

Wash the cherries.

Stem and pit the cherries (this task is pretty laborious but enjoyable)

Measure the cherries at this stage. For every cup of cherries, add ¾ cup of sugar and juice of half a lime.

If the cherries are tart, measure 1 cup of sugar for every cup of stemmed and pitted cherries.

Mash half the cherries and leave the other half whole.

Take a thick bottomed non aluminum vessel. Transfer cherries and add sugar.

Mix and leave for 2 hours. The cherries will release juice and sugar will dissolve.

Add lime juice.

Cook over medium flame.  Keep stirring.

When the jam reduces in quantity and attains a thick consistency, lower the flame. Stir continuously.

To test doneness, drop some jam on the cold plate. Return to freezer for a minute. Run your finger through the jam on the plate... if it doesn't try to run back together, it is done. If it is runny, it needs to be cooked for some more time.

When the jam is ready, turn off the heat

While the jam cools, sterilize the bottles. Place the washed and dried bottles with the lids in the oven. Set the temperature to 100 degrees and set the timer to 10 minutes. Remove the bottles and their lids from the oven. Ladle hot jam into the jars leaving ¼ inch headspace. Secure the lids tightly.

The jam is chewy and delicious!