One Use for Cherries

Geri and Gunther came over yesterday to take some cherries off our hands, and they left us with some dill and a couple bunches of fresh bibb lettuce and escarole from their garden. So, I put them in a salad for dinner, along with a few sliced mushrooms, a couple sliced hardboiled eggs, and of course, several handfuls of pitted sour cherries. I served the salad with my garlic-honey-mustard dressing, accompanied by toasted baguette and brie.

The bibb lettuce was delicate, the escarole was spicy, and the egg yolks added a touch of richness. The cherries were a juicy accent, but to stand up to the dill, I found I needed about two cherries per bite, which is a lot. But they made a nice replacement for tomatoes, which I'm usually not crazy about in salads — somehow, I always find their presence jarring.

To be a successful cooking ingredient, I think the cherries need to have their flavor concentrated somehow. I will experiment with applying heat and sugar. From what I've read, this will bring out the almond flavor (cyanide) from the pits. Stay tuned.