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ROSAMUND’S CHERRY SAUCE – FOR SERVING WITH SUCKLING PIG

Please click on the image to see enlarged version of the finished recipe.

The cherry trees in the orchard have been dripping with cherries this year. Even so, we only had a couple of pickings of the sweet ones before the birds (and squirrels – they seem to like cherries too) got the rest. But there were still plenty left of the smaller and slightly tart old-fashioned cherries which made a delicious sauce to go with our Middle White Suckling Pig.
The cherries you find in the shops are sweeter and larger and that is reflected in the recipe. Our suckling pig is as delicious cold as it is hot. Roasted the day before you want to eat it and carved at room temperature, it makes a lovely light dish for a hot day. The first time I made this sauce, the weather was cold and I kept the sauce hot to serve with meat straight from the oven. The second time, we had friends for lunch in the garden and I wanted to serve the pork cold. The sauce was just as good cold.
The only effort is de-stoning the cherries. Even if you can get nice fat cherries rather than my little ones from the tree, I wouldn’t embark on this sauce unless you have one of those gadgets which I think are intended for destoning olives. If you have one of them, getting rid of the stones isn’t too laboursome – and the rest is easy.
Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

  • 300 g cherries
  • 4 small shallots
  • 50 g butter
  • 2 tbs red wine vinegar
  • 100 ml chicken stock
  • 150 ml red wine
  • 2 tbs Kirsch
  • Zest of one lime
  • Sugar to taste
  • Salt and black pepper

Instructions

  • De-stone the cherries (over a bowl to catch all the juice). Peel the shallots.
  • Melt the butter in a frying pan and brown the shallots all over.
  • Add the cherries and their juice, the vinegar, the stock and the wine and cook over a low heat for about 15 minutes until the shallots are cooked through and the liquid has reduced by at least half – you want the sauce to be quite syrupy.
  • Add the Kirsch and boil for a further couple of minutes.
  • Taste for sweetness – because my cherries were quite tart, I added 2 heaped tbs granulated sugar but start with 1 tbs if you have sweet cherries.
  • Boil briefly and then add the lime zest.
  • Season well with sea salt and black pepper and taste again to make sure you have the right balance between sweet and sour.
  • Add a touch more sugar if necessary and bring the sauce to the boil to melt the sugar.
  • This sauce can be reheated easily if you want to serve it hot or simply left to get cold – bring it back to room temperature if you have to put it in the fridge.
    Order Middle White Suckling Pig