Maraschino Cherries
Embracing yet another delightful day at Phillips farm in west New Jersey, Nature was on my side today, with a splendidly overcast sky, lending an enchanting and mystical feel to the experience. The absence of scorching sunlight was a true blessing, for I've always favored cooler days. I initially intended to harvest just a few cherries for a couple of pies but the moment and the fun kept me going which resulted in a more abundant harvest in store for me than I had anticipated.
It was then that inspiration struck, and I made the decision to channel the surplus fruit into crafting exquisite jarred maraschino cherries. The appeal of these cherries lies not only in their irresistible flavor, but also in their ability to elevate cocktails, desserts, but even a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream into delightful culinary creations, truly making it the proverbial 'cherry on top'.
1 pound preferably of sour cherries, washed and pitted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
juice from half a lemon
1/2 fresh vanilla bean (or vanilla extract to taste)
1 cup Luxardo maraschino liqueur
Ingredients:
Procedure:
Wash your cherries with cold water, or the way I like to do it is to place them for 5 min in a bowl of water with some baking soda. Even organic farms use minor amounts of pesticides.
Once all your cherries are clean remove the pits with a cherry pitter, I recommend the one from William & Sonoma, but you can find good and affordable ones on amazon.com as well. There’s a myriad ways to remove pits but I find this one the most efficient and keeps the cherries pretty intact.
In a pan add the water and the sugar with the lemon juice and the vanilla extract ( I prefer using a freshly scraped vanilla bean or vanilla paste ).
Bring everything to boil and the add the pitter cherries, let it simmer for about 7-8 minutes and watch for the juice to thicken and get syrup like.
Remove the cherries from heat and let it cool before adding the maraschino liquor.
Jar in a beautiful mason or weck jar and refrigerate.
