Still Life with Reindeer

I made a "Black Cake" for the holidays this year. The recipe came from the Houston Chronicle, published in early July, 2008. I was in Houston to attend my aunt's funeral, and I liked the idea of making the cake as a sort of tribute to her, even though I don't know if she ever made fruit cake. The recipe starts by calling for macerating dried fruit for several months in Manischewitz wine, which I dutifully carried out.

Mom used to make a fabulous fruit cake, which her children loved (from what I've heard, the fruit-cake-gene did not make it to the next generation). Hers is a very dark, crumbly but moist mixture of dried fruits and just enough cake to barely hold it all together, with big chunks of candied cherry punctuating the "healthy" fruit. And then it is soaked in brandy for as many months as possible (I remember the Christmas when I realized the brandy was a good flavor, and I could stop pushing the outer crust of cake to the side of the plate.) Last time I asked, she didn't have a recipe, or didn't know where it was, or something. Anyway, I'm going to put pressure on her to find it, or to make one up for me to try.

This "Black Cake" is pretty good. It is certainly moist, and if there aren't enough cherries, that's my own fault for not adding enough. It is far too light in flavor, however. The recipe called for a frosting of fondant, which I tried out of curiosity. I didn't make the fondant, but bought it in a box from a specialty store as recommended by several cookbooks. I wouldn't recommend it to others, unless you have a need for a splendid look (because even with the rips, uneven "ribbon" and smeared icing dots that I amateurishly produced, it looks quite wonderful), but the flavor was merely acceptable. (I am not a big frosting fan, however.)

Holiday Recipe: Cranberry-Cherry-Walnut Chutney

This recipe came originally from Cooking Light Magazine. It's very easy to make, and is very tasty (I've seen people eat it with a spoon, like preserved fruit). I will add a photo next time I make it, but it just looks like a cranberry-colored jam.

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup port or other sweet red wine
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries
2/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Orange rind strips (optional)

Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Add cherries, and cook 1 minute. Stir in cranberries; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until cranberries pop. Remove from heat. Stir in walnuts, grated rind, and extract. Garnish with orange rind strips, if desired. Cover and chill.

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1/4 cup)

CALORIES 108(25% from fat); FAT 3g (sat 0.2g,mono 0.7g,poly 2g); PROTEIN 1.5g;
CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 11mg; SODIUM 2mg; FIBER 1.8g; IRON 0.3mg;
CARBOHYDRATE 19.7g
Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2005

The Bride Makes Cherry Wine, Step two

The Cherry Wine I made last month is ready for step 2, so I strained and bottled it. Then, in a bit of a Martha moment, I made labels for it. It's a beautiful color and tastes lovely, although it's supposed to sit for a while yet before drinking. I saved the cherries and I'm going to macerate them for a while in a little kirsch and simple syrup, then make ice cream with them. I'm thinking the wine will make a nice Sangria.

The Bride makes Walnut and Cherry Liqueurs

The Bride, following in Vivi's footsteps, has made two kinds of walnut liqueur. (Thanks for sending me the walnuts, Vivi and Girl child). The middle jar and the righthand jar are Vin de Noix and Nocino, respectively. I actually used the other recipe for the Vin de Noix, the one Vivi didn't use. It calls for 'bitter orange peel'. I'm working on getting it, but I just went ahead and made it without. And the Nocino on the far right - look how dark it has gotten. It started out clear with lovely green walnut quarters floating in it. I only made 1/2 recipe of each, because that's how many walnuts I had. If it's good, I'll have to get Vivi to send me more next summer.

The 2 gallon jar on the far left is Vin de Cerise, made from a recipe in the same French cookbook as the Vin de Noix recipe I used. This one we've made before and I love it. I highly recommend trying this while the cherries are available. I made the full 3 liters, but you could make less.

Vin de Cerise
3 liters of red or rose wine
1 kilo of black cherries
1/2 litre of vodka or eau de vie
500 grams of sugar

Crush the cherries (I put them in a strong plastic zip lock bag and smashed them with a flat meat tenderizer.) Leave the pits in place - much of the flavor comes from the pits. Put everything in a large jar. Mine is 2 gallons. Swirl the contents around every day for 15 days of maceration. After that, filter and put in bottles and let sit a little longer. The cherries that you filter out are really good with ice cream, once you pick the pits out.