Vintage cherries

When I moved into my house, about six years ago, there was an old cherry tree in the corner of the garden. The first year it blossomed and offered cherries, which were picked, the second year I'm not sure there were many cherries, but still it blossomed.

The tree mainly consisted of an old, wrinkled stock and it wasn't a very lively corner of the garden. And there wasn't much of a bloom anymore. And the cats were far to eager to use it for climbing. So I decided to cut it down - I hate killing trees and plants like that, but it felt like it wasn't really happy about its place in the world anymore. So down it came. And I haven't planted any new trees.

But what happened to the cherries picked sometime around the first summer after I had moved in? They were tucked in the freezer. Actually they've been in the freezer right up until yesterday... I'm not sure when things in the freezer can be called vintage - but I'm pretty sure that something like six years definately is vintage...

I've been meaning to do something really nice, something quite remarkable with them, I just haven't had any great ideas or recipes. Then yesterday I made a rhubarb compote, with sugar syrup and cinnamon. After having put the compote in a bowl there was some really yummy syrup left, so I decided this would be as good time as any to defrost the vintage cherries and make a sort-of-compote of them too.

I seeded them - my battle with the seeds leaving parts of the kitchen looking a bit like a slaughterhouse - and threw them into the syrup (water, lemonjuice, vanillapod, cinnamonstick) added some more sugar, and a bit of tequila - I felt like experimenting, but it probably evaporated while boiling - and let it come to a boil and then boil for some minutes.

The result? It tastes sooo incredibly goood!! Sort of tangy rather than sweet cherries, with a hint of vanilla, cinnamon and of course the rhubarb I cooked in the syrup before.

Serves really well with cinnamon muffins and whipped cream, and most certainly teams up well with good vanilla icecream.

Maybe the heavenly taste is enhanced by the fact that this really is a once in a lifetime vintage cherry compote. I hope the cherry tree that now lives in another world is proud of it's achivement of giving such good cherries in this world, my world, that ended up in such a nice compote. Thank you so much for your kind provide, cherrytree!