Cherry Rum Preserve

This is a sweet preserve I made with the Kashmiri Misri cherries my fruitwalla Sadhuram made sure he got for me before he left for his village for monsoon rice cultivation. These were the reddest and sweetest, the remaining were shades of orange n yellow which I kept in the fridge so I get to snack on them for long.

The recipe is very simple but potent to lift up a regular breakfast or dessert to pleasurable heights. Make and keep some handy.

Ingredients

2 cups Kashmiri Misri cherries, pitted and halved 

1 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon lime juice

1 cup water

4 teaspoons rum

In a saucepan put the pitted and halved cherries. Add 1 cup water and cook the cherries till soft. Next tip in the sugar and cook till a syrup is formed. The syrup should coat the back of the spoon. Switch off the gas and let it cool for 30 mins. After this point add 4 teaspoons rum, I used Old Monk. Stir in well and let it rest till use, store in a clean dry glass jar.

The next day I had a bread baking class and I had planned a fruit and custard dessert for the lunch menu. I let the glasses of fruit n custard chill in the fridge and topped the individual servings with 2 teaspoons of the Cherry Rum Preserve. It made the dessert extra-ordinary.

Other ideas to eat it, I had it with fresh homemade Mascarpone and even with just plain butter croissant. You can use it to top a cake too.