Does anyone have any recipes for nanking cherries? And how do you tell if they are ripe?
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Answers:
Nanking cherries are ripe when they are red, soft, and sweet. If they are red, try one to see if you like the flavor.
As for recipes, you can use any recipe for a small seedy, somewhat sour fruit. In general, because of the large pit in the center and the small amount of fruit around the pit, the easiest way to deal with them is to steam juice them. (For steam juicers, look up Mehu-Liisa as a brand name.) This allows you to extract the juice without having to deal with the pits. Then you can make jelly, following recipes for elderberry or blackberry jelly. Or juice, or syrup. You can also simply eat them fresh--they are rather tasty when sweet and ripe, and then you don't have to deal with pre-pitting them.
huh. I stuck nanking cherry recipes into google and got a slew. This link looks really good for baked goods:
http://www.kiowacd.org/tips_links/nankin...
and these two for jellies (nanking cherries are down a ways in the second link, but it has both cup and liter measurements):
http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/1380...
http://www.atcoblueflamekitchen.com/pres...
And here's one for wine!
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request...
As for how you tell when they're ripe, the sites all said "use only ripe fruit" and then mentioned it didn't have a long shelf life. No one said how you tell if it is ripe. I would guess... you TASTE it. And pretty soon you'll be the expert and will tell US how you tell when it's ripe.
Pick one and taste to see if it's sweet. Try the food network for recipes.
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