This one is firmly courtesy of Waitrose. It’s a great example of a recipe that, having tried it once, was immediately promoted into my ‘recipes for life’. I’ve made three or four batches in one summer alone – giving them as gifts, using in sweet or savoury dishes.

Bottle summer and keep dipping into it well into the autumn. Keeps far longer than the few days indicated in the original Waitrose recipe – the juice will last for months.

I’ve reproduced the recipe here hoping for forgiveness rather than having asked for permission to do so….my own serving suggestions include:

• Breakfast (simply with yohurt or, my absolute favourite and hit with anyone I’ve shared it with, as an ‘overnight oats’ with cocounut yoghurt, banana and rye flakes)
• Serve a few with roast duck and add some of the juice to a red wine gravy
• With chicken in a Moroccan-style coucous salad
• Eton-mess style dessert, particularly with goat’s cheese to get a beautiful sweet-tart flavour

Fills about a 1kg jar

Equipment

Nothing special – just a suitable jar

Ingredients

Cherries	500	grams
Cinnamon Stick	1
Black Peppercorns	6
Cloves	2
White Wine Vinegar	325	millilitres
Sugar	450	grams

 

Method

1.  Prick each cherry with a skewer.
2. Put the spices, vinegar and sugar in a pan and heat, stirring to help the sugar dissolve.
3. Add the cherries and simmer gently for 4 minutes ish.
4. Lift the cherries out with a slotted spoon and put in a large, warm, sterilised jar.
5. Reduce the liquid until it becomes slightly syrupy.
6. Once cool, pour over the cherries and seal with the lid.
7. Keep in the fridge until your eyes and nose tell you they are past their best.