RCP: Chevre With Bing Cherry Confit

[Jenise]

Date: 29-Jun-2002 16:56
Author: Jenise Email
Subject: RC: Spiced bing cherry "confit" w/chevre
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It's a cheese course and a fruit plate in one. Serve with a fresh young pinot noir or zinfandel.

In this dish the cherries are soaked in a spicy brine, then drained and combined with olive oil, salt and pepper. That mixture is then poured over chevre cheese to become a spread and dipping sauce for crusty sourdough bread.

My inspiration for this recipe was something called "pickled bing cherries". I dislike the term 'pickled' for it sounds too 'cooked' and all-about-the-cherries which distracts focus from the greater good achieved in combination with very good olive oil, tangy cheese and crusty bread. "Confit" veers dangerously toward trendy recipe name abuse, but after thinking about it overnight I think it's better than 'pickled', so there!

The brine:
1 cup water
juice of half a lemon
1.5 t sugar
1 t salt
1/2 tsp black mustard seed
1/2 tsp fennel seed
1 pod star anise
1 bay leaf

The rest:
1/4-1/2 cup EVOO
1.5 cups pitted/halved fresh bing cherries
salt and fresh ground black pepper
chevre cheese (6 - 8 ounces)
baguette

Make the brine in a small saucepan by bringing all ingredients to a boil, then allowing the brine to cool completely.

Meanwhile, prepare the cherries. When the brine has cooled, add the cherries and soak for about an hour. Drain the cherries--and if you're making this ahead, here's where you would want to hold the dish, refrigerating the cherries until needed if it's going to be more than an hour or so until service (this is best at room temperature). Just before serving, combine with EVOO, salt and course ground black pepper to taste. The cherries will be fine in the olive oil for up to an hour, but they'll 'cook' in the olive oil's acidity so extended time is not reccomended.

Break or slice the chevre into large chunks in the center of a plate, scoop cherries over. Serve with thin toasted slices of baguette.

Thanks for this. I love cherries and am so happy that they are starting to show up in the markets. I rarely do more than just eat them, but it's nice to think of these different ideas and may try a version of this in the next few weeks just to be different.

[Jenise]

I'm like you--I just eat them! But that's a snack. What's special about this method, if I can use that word about one of my own recipes, is that this turns a fresh cherry into a wine course.

Sounds like a mess to me, Jenise. What's the texture like when you add that baguette and chevre to the pot? (Two parts of "all ingredients").

[Jenise]

Sounds like a mess to me, Jenise. What's the texture like when you add that baguette and chevre to the pot? (Two parts of "all ingredients").

LOL and ! I'll edit that.

Jenise,

Two things: 1. What is a pod? Is that one whole star or just one of the five wings? 2. Please use coarse-ground pepper, not course ground. I dread to think how difficult it is for a horse to get his hoof just on the peppercorn as he dashes around the course.

[Jenise]

Jenise,

Two things: 1. What is a pod? Is that one whole star or just one of the five wings? 2. Please use coarse-ground pepper, not course ground. I dread to think how difficult it is for a horse to get his hoof just on the peppercorn as he dashes around the course.

Yeah, a whole star. And re #2, sing along with me: a horse is a horse of coarse, of coarse....