Cerises au Claret

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •1½-quart (1.4 L) heavy stainless-steel saucepan with a snug lid
• •Graduated heatproof measuring jug
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Shallow 1-quart (950 ml) glass serving bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   Trim the cherries

   Choose a narrow 1½-quart (1.4 L) saucepan in which the cherries will sit snugly in no more than two layers. Cut only the dry tip from each stalk, leaving the stalk attached and the cherry unpitted, then settle the fruit gently in the pan. The intact fruit keeps its shape and its juice during poaching; tell your guests about the pits when you serve it.

2. 2

   Prepare the claret

   Stir the Bordeaux and sugar together in a measuring jug until the sugar has mostly dissolved. Pour the sweetened wine over the cherries and add the small piece of cinnamon. The wine should just cover the fruit; if it does not, move everything to a narrower pan rather than diluting the claret with water.

   The source leaves sweetened Bordeaux to the cook's judgment. Seventy grams of sugar gives a dry Bordeaux enough roundness for dessert without turning the poaching liquid into candy.
3. 3

   Poach below boiling

   Set the pan over medium-low heat until pinprick bubbles gather at the edge, then turn the burner to its lowest setting, cover tightly, and poach for 10 minutes. Hold the wine near 175 to 185°F (80 to 85°C), with a quiet surface and no bubbles breaking through the center. This restraint is the dish. If the wine begins to boil, lift the pan from the heat immediately, uncover it for 30 seconds, then finish the poach covered and off the heat or over the gentlest burner. Ça se rattrape. Do not stir; give the closed pan one careful rotation halfway through instead.

4. 4

   Cool in the syrup

   Remove the pan from the heat, discard the cinnamon, and let the cherries cool completely in their poaching syrup, about 45 minutes. Cover and chill them in the same syrup for at least 1½ hours. Cooling in the wine is not idle waiting: the fruit takes on the claret's flavor as its flesh settles.

5. 5

   Reduce by one-third

   Set a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl and drain the cherries without pressing them, then return the fruit to the cold. Measure the syrup and calculate two-thirds of its volume. Return it to the clean saucepan and simmer uncovered until it reaches that mark, usually 8 to 12 minutes. For example, 2 cups (475 ml) of drained syrup should finish at 1⅓ cups (315 ml). This reduction is the flavor foundation, so judge it by volume rather than guessing at its thickness.

6. 6

   Add the currant jelly

   Measure the reduced syrup once more. For every 6 tablespoons (90 ml) of reduction, whisk in exactly 1 tablespoon (15 ml) red-currant jelly over low heat, only until the jelly dissolves and the syrup becomes clear and glossy. Do not continue boiling after the jelly goes in, or its pectin can set the glaze too firmly. If that happens after cooling, warm the syrup gently and whisk in 1 teaspoon (5 ml) cold water at a time until it flows from the spoon in a light sheet.

7. 7

   Chill and serve

   Cool the finished syrup completely, then pour it over the cherries and turn them once with a spoon so every skin takes on a garnet gloss. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour. Serve the Cerises au Claret quite cold, spooning a little syrup around each portion, with two crisp biscuits à la cuillère per person on a separate plate. Remind everyone that the cherries retain their pits. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Use firm, ripe sweet cherries with sound skins and fresh stalks. Soft fruit collapses during the ten-minute poach, while underripe fruit stays hard and gives little juice to the wine.
• •This dish truly needs fresh cherries. Frozen cherries split, bleed, and cloud the syrup; when cherry season has passed, make poires au vin (pears poached in wine) rather than forcing this preparation with tired fruit.
• •Claret is not a separate grape here. Choose a dry red Bordeaux with clear fruit and moderate tannin, something pleasant but not costly; reduction concentrates harsh oak and bitterness along with everything else.
• •Use smooth, strained red-currant jelly, not preserves with fruit pieces. Its measured pectin gives the reduced syrup a clean gloss, and the source's ratio of one spoonful of jelly to six spoonfuls of reduction should not be guessed.
• •The stalks and pits are part of the original presentation. Serve dessert spoons and a small side dish for the pits, then tell the table plainly before anyone takes the first bite.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the entire dish up to one day ahead. Keep the cherries covered and refrigerated in their finished claret syrup; the flavor rounds out while the fruit remains firm.
• •If preparing in stages, poach and chill the cherries in their original syrup first, then drain, reduce, and finish with the red-currant jelly later the same day.
• •Keep the biscuits à la cuillère airtight and completely separate until serving. Refrigeration softens them, and their crispness is the proper contrast to the cold fruit and syrup.
• •Serve within two days. The cherries remain pleasant after that, but their skins soften and the syrup begins to draw too much juice from the flesh.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 255g)