Last week I went cherry picking. Since using the cherries to make anything that would involve turning on the oven would have resulted in the Earth combusting, I decided to make cherry coulis instead.
Coulis: (pronounced /kuːˈliː/, “koo-LEE”) (French, from Old French couleis, from Vulgar Latin cōlāticus, from Latin cōlātus, past participle of cōlāre, to strain) a thick sauce made from puréed and strained vegetables or fruits.
Ingredients
- 2lbs sour cherries
- 1 1/2 C sugar
- 1/4 C white balsamic vinegar (you can use regular balsamic vinegar, but the sauce will be much darker and not as sweet)
- 2-3 tsp vanilla (use the good stuff)
Tools
- Paperclip (for pitting the cherries. If you know of a better method, do share!)
- Large saucepan
- Blender
Directions
- Pit the cherries. If possible, do so while watching an episode of True Blood – the red cherry guts on your hands adds a special visceral element to the experience
- Simmer pitted cherries, escaped cherry juice, balsamic vinegar, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over low heat for 30 minutes
- Blend the mixture until smooth
- Simmer to reduce until it reaches the thickness you want
- Put the coulis over something delicious. I went with vanilla bean ice cream with dark chocolate shavings and a sprinkle of coarse sea salt
Sprinkling of sea salt? Now there’s a first.. my brain is in overdrive, I know you come from somewhere where it snows a lot in winter but seriously…? there are better ways of melting your ice-cream I can assure you…
(as in eating it LOL).
Don’t knock it ’till you try it, lady! The sweet, salty and sour go perfectly together.
See also: salt on canteloupe. SO GOOD.
Only as long as you don’t use cantaloupe
My grandmother eats salt on both chocolate and watermelon.
LOL wasn’t knocking it, just have never heard of it and it just doesn’t sound right in my brain
Yes I WILL give it a go… any flavour ice-cream is ok or just vanilla goes best?
Anything you think would taste good with cherry sauce should be delicious.
I don’t usually have a sweet tooth, but that looks amazing!
That salt over ice cream thing got me really intrigued … I’ve never heard of this before!
Where I come from, it’s considered a delicacy to put some pumpkin seed oil over plain vanilla ice cream, though I yet have to try it.