Pickled cherries
Sherry vinegar can be wonderful for pickling, bringing such depth of flavour. Here fresh cherries are pickled with sherry vinegar and mix of spices to be served as an accompaniment for cheese, game, lamb or charcuterie. The resulting pickling liquor will be as delicious as the pickles cherries themselves. Rather than throw it away, be sure to use the liquor in salads dressings.
(Note that while the recipe calls for using 75ml each of a mix of sherry vinegar styles you could use 150ml of one sherry vinegar style only if you prefer.)
Makes: 1 x 300ml jar
Time: 10 minutes
75ml Barbadillo Vinagre de Jerez Reserva or Barbadillo Vinagre de Jerez
Reserva Ecologico
75ml Barbadillo Vinagre de Jerez Reserva al Pedro Ximenez
40g soft light brown or granulated sugar
1 tsp fine salt
1
/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 bay leaf
1 broad strip of orange zest
1
/4 tsp black peppercorns
250g cherries
a glass jar with 300ml capacity, sterilised
Put the sherry vinegar into a pan and add 75ml water, the sugar, salt and cinnamon. Simmer just long enough for the sugar and salt to dissolve, then take off the heat and add to the pan the vanilla, bay leaf, orange zest and peppercorns. Set aside to cool.
Wash and dry the cherries. Put them into the sterilised jar. Pour over the cool pickling liquor – making sure the bay leaf, orange strip and peppercorns go into the jar too so they can continue to infuse the cherry pickle with flavour.
Seal and store in the fridge for 2 weeks before using. They’ll keep for up to 3 months.
