Damson and sour cherry drizzle with vanilla ice cream

The fruit for this recipe came from the hedgerows and plantations around our orchard, picked and immediately frozen some months ago.  Eaten with ice cream, the taste sensation is very tuneful.. first there is an immediate sweet and fragrant hit, followed by a sour sharpness and a lingering bitter tinge.  A really good vanilla ice cream complements and softens the sharp, sour elements.

You could use any number of fruit following this basic recipe, but the taste sensation will be very different for each.  Damsons and sour cherries have an especially deep, vibrant, sharp flavour.





Ingredients:

Damson

Cherries

Sugar

This recipe is only worth doing with at least a kilo of fruit.  I had a couple of bags of damsons and cherries from the garden that were taking up space in the freezer and really needed to be used up (probably at least 4 kilos in total).

I was very short of time, so this is method is devised by necessity rather than design, but the result is very good and useful in a number of ways.    I put the frozen fruit in a large, thick-bottomed pan on the Rayburn (not on the hob, just on the warm side) with a large mug of water to thaw for about 12 hours to thaw.

When thawed, I stewed the fruit gently at just below simmer point, until the flesh was dropping off the stones and very soft.

For jelly the next phase involves straining through muslin, which is time-consuming and a bit messy.  To save time, and make a thicker 'jus' I pressed the fruit through a sieve, discarding the remaining stones and skin.

Next, I measured the fruit jus, and for every 600 ml, added 450 grams of sugar.  Then I returned the pot to the hob, heating slowly to dissolve all the sugar, then brought the mixture to the boil briefly, stirring all the time.  I bottled the mixture in sterilised jars (sterilise by washing on normal dishwasher cycle).  This should keep for 3 months or so if refrigerated.  Once opened, it will go off fairly quickly.


The basic method in terms of proportions of fruit to sugar is taken from the fruit jelly recipes in  Maguerite Patten's book The Basic Basics Jams, Preserves and Chutneys.

The main difference is that I didn't have time to boil to setting point and seal down in jars to preserve as jelly.  A jelly will last much longer, doesn't need refrigerating if properly sterilised, set and sealed, and has a thicker jelly-like consistency, good on toast or with cold meats or cheese.