Sweet things...

Summer time, the time I try to go on regular fresh fruit runs (and pick up canned tropical fruit, to supplement) to the grocery store or other market. The payoff--lots of delicious fruit, obtained at good prices, which helped me drop a few pounds. The last is accomplished by simply having lots of fruit at home all the time, so anytime I'm feeling hungry and it's not quite mealtime, I simply pop fruit into my mouth, which keeps me from getting into dietary trouble!

So, I stocked up at Giant with fresh fruit on sale--blueberries, strawberries, and, of course, cherries (I stocked up on peaches a couple of days earlier). Of course, sweet cherries were there in force, on sale for $1.88 a pound, so I got a bit over a pound. But wait, I also saw the beauties above, pints of tart cherries from upstate New York's Orbaker Fruit Farms (part of the Red Tomato network). Whoa! Now, these were not on sale (not at $3.99/pint), there weren't many of them, and I had never tasted fresh tart cherries, so resistance was futile. All fruits have health benefits, and tend to be high in antioxidants (blueberries and cherries in particular), and tart cherries have among the highest antioxidant levels. OK, so I figure I'll make a stovetop cherry slump or grunt in a couple of days for breakfast.

I'll still make that dish, but it might be a smaller one than I originally planned, 'cause it's hard to stop popping these little red orbs directly into my piehole. Frankly, these guys should be renamed as "sweet'n'sour" cherries or "sweettart" cherries, because while not as sweet as their sweeter cousins, they do have a reasonable amount of sweetness to go with the acidity, almost making them more interesting to eat. Addictive, almost. These tart cherries, so-called "pie" cherries because they keep their shape better than sweeter ones. Fair enough. But don't relegate them to pie only if you happen to run across the fresh version of the tart ones at a farmer's market or pick-your-own farm.

Now, the ones that I will cook do present another dilemma--how to pit. After all, I don't have a cherry pitter at home, as I don't cook enough of them to justify one. But, for a small amount like a pint, kitchen utensils already at home were handy enough. For the first step after stemming, cutting the cherries in half, the knife best suited is a small steak knife (or any small serrated knife), like this...
Notice how pale the tart cherries are inside, which means that there were no stained fingers even after cutting and pitting!

On to pitting. The easiest, quickest way for me (but not for everyone, obviously) was to take my right thumbnail to scoop out the pits. Using a small knife works OK, as I tried pitting with the serrated knife and a smaller knife, but really, a cherry pitter would work best for folks with short nails, because using a knife takes too long.

For people who want some of the benefits (and plump texture) of tart cherries when they're not in season, you can find canned tart cherries packed in water at the supermarket. So far, Giant rules again, as its brand is the most reasonably priced canned tart cherries I've seen in stores or online.

That's right--it's almost impossible find canned tart cherries for less than $2.50 a can, so this was a revelation, one which made its way straight into the shopping cart!

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Of course, when you think of sweet things, you can't help but also think of this classic from Rufus and Chaka Khan...

Cherry Surprise!

Those delightful Yoshino cherry trees (show-offs!) nonfruiting though they are, turn the mind to all things cherry nonetheless. Like so many other things, though, les cerises can leave a bad taste behind if not properly handled, delicate as they are. Cherry products that do right by me include:

• McCutcheon's whole cherry preserves (the fruit-sweetened variety). This Frederick, MD-based company believes in truth in advertising, as you'll find many whole cherries, as well as large fruit pieces, in every jar of this fantastic, chunky spread.
• Boylan black cherry soda--the best cherry soda ever! Full of old-fashioned fruit flavor, not medicinal in the least (the bane of many products that purport to contain cherry flavor).
• The Republic of Tea's spring cherry green tea. I have one caveat about this one--it must be brewed properly for green tea. This means that its water must be kept just below boiling before pouring over the tea bag, and the bag must steep for less than three minutes. Otherwise, the brew, like the critters from Gremlins who munch after midnight, turns ugly.

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You may have heard (or not) that cherries can relieve aches and pains. Jean Carper, in her book,
Food--Your Miracle Medicine, relates that cherries are one of the foods that are extremely high in natural (and legal!) painkilling substances, in the book subchapter titled, "Salicylates: How Foods May Work like Aspirin." (Perhaps this lends credence to the decades-old belief that cherries can relieve the pain of gout.)

Obviously, Carper is not the only one who's heard that the rouge fruit can come to the rescue, as scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have performed preliminary investigations (ooh!) of whether cherries can relieve aches; the initial results are promising.

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In honor of cherries, and in time for Easter, local chocolate manufacturer (in the original sense of being handmade) Christopher's Confections held a (free!) tasting at the fine chocolate proprietor Biagio last night.

Now, this foray was justified, as it was held around dinnertime, dark chocolate is a good source of antioxidants, and Biagio is stocked with plenty of this form of the 'food of the gods.' Frankly though, the new cherry offering, Ying Hua, is among my least favorite from the aforementioned confectioner, because I'm not particularly fond of the cherry-chocolate combo. Sorry!

However, most of Christopher Blume's (the owner of Christopher's Confections) other chocolates blew me away, and the master himself was on hand to explain aspects of the chocolate-making process, as well as to bring out more samples! My favorites are the juniper cassis, raspberry, and the butter + scotch flavors. Runners-up are the pistachio, macadamia, and the gingerbread. Now I no longer need to rack my brain to come up with gift ideas, 'cause I only need to boogie down to Biagio to purchase some of its glossy, delicious offerings, and my shopping is done!