Blackcurrant and cherry soup

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Simon Wilder’s refreshing and beautifully balanced fruit soup recipe makes the most out of decadently deep red cherries, nectarines and blackcurrants, given a boost by a dash of cassis and brandy.

First published in 2015

My new friend Amanda was coming to dinner for the first time and a few days before the meal, she sent me a message: ‘Re: My intolerances . . . If you could steer clear of dairy, grains, oranges, tomatoes, game and beef, I'm a doddle to cook for.’ I scratched my chin and said ‘hmm’ out loud. A doddle, indeed.

I decided the best way to deal with this was to cook simply but well. The main part of the meal wasn’t too hard. I made a lemony chicken thing from Diana Henry’s latest book A Bird in the Hand (which is terrific, I cook from it all the time) and some garlicky roasted new potatoes from the same chapter. I intended to dress a leafy salad, but really, when you have enough garlicky new potatoes salad is a bit redundant. Both our plates were left clean. But what to do for dessert . . .

What I most enjoy — no, love — cooking for dessert is a custard tart. That, obviously, was out. Then I remembered a fruit soup I ate last Autumn in the Montefiore Hotel in Tel Aviv that had me singing for days. Cold fruit soups are popular in Scandinavia and eastern Europe and I was surprised to learn that there are Middle Eastern versions too. It satisfies many food intolerances, being both gluten- and dairy-free. It doesn’t, however, taste like it’s made for people with restricted diets. The one I had in Israel was a beautiful deep red and had a deep flavour, too. I looked online for a recipe but I found nothing on the hotel’s website, nor did any other recipes I found look anything like the garnet beauty that I’d eaten. There was only one solution – I had to invent my own.

I made this using cassis and the brandy and sugar solution that a kilo of cherries had been steeping in since last summer. I’d used all the cherries by April, but held on to the liquid for a time just like this. Plain brandy or kirsch would also work or cherry brandy would be lovely. I didn’t use much. The alcohol adds some complexity but you don’t want to taste the soup and think booze. It isn’t a post-dinner cocktail. You could easily omit the alcohol altogether without compromising the flavour much.

Making soup is also a way to give bland-tasting fruit a significant boost. The cherries I used were dull and watery, but after a few hours sitting in the sweet liquid they tasted the way cherries should. It won’t make unripe fruit soft, though.

Frozen blackcurrants are fine for this as fresh are hard to find at the best of times. Almost all of the UK harvest is sent to the Ribena factory. Blueberries also work well.

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Method

1
Heat the blackcurrants with 300ml of water in a small saucepan over a medium heat (there’s no need to strip them from their spindly stems)
2
Let it bubble until the fruit has collapsed and the liquid is a deep, purple-red, the colour of a good Chianti. This will take about 5 minutes
3
Drain into a bowl and press the pulp through a sieve to extract as much flavour and liquid as possible. Discard the fruit and return the liquid to the saucepan
4
Add the cinnamon stick or star anise and most of the sugar. How much sugar depends on the fruit you use and how sweet it is – start with 50g as it’s easy to add more. Add a splash of cassis and another of brandy
5
Heat the liquid until the sugar fully dissolves. Taste it, but remember that the sweetness is numbed a little when it is chilled. The fruit may be more or less tart, so it’s impossible to give more than a guide
6
Add sugar until it’s a little bit sweeter than you want it to be, let it dissolve, then remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the vanilla paste and lemon juice
7
Cut a cross in the bottom of the nectarine, cover with boiling water and leave for 2 minutes. Drain, cover with cold water, drain again and pull off the skin
8
Cut the nectarine in half and remove the stone – it will be slippery to handle but it’s worth doing. Cut into pieces that aren’t too big for a spoon
9
Add the cherries and nectarine pieces to the liquid. They will soften slightly as it cools, but not enough to make a piece of unripe fruit soft
10
Allow to cool, then place in the fridge for 30 minutes before you want to serve it. You want it to be chilled, not icy
11
Ladle artfully into bowls and dot with raspberries. Arrange flowers prettily, if using
First published in 2015

Photographer and food blogger Simon Wilder is teaching himself to cook and eat in order to repair the damage caused by a childhood eating the inedible.

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