Savory cherry chutney-like compote made with fresh cherries, walnuts, shallots, rosemary, honey, and Port, perfect with pork, chicken, or duck.
When fresh cherries are in season, it’s kind of hard to resist eating as many as you can. Actually, at our house, that goes for any stone fruit.
But sometimes, sometimes we have even more cherries than we can justifiably eat, and common sense kicks in and we think, uh, maybe we should fill up on more than just fruit? Protein perhaps?
Dinner beckons yet that big bowl of cherries eyes us temptingly. Dilemma solved.
A quick and easy savory compote made with fresh cherries, walnuts, rosemary, and shallots in a wine reduction makes an excellent accompaniment to pork, chicken, or even duck.
Serve with pork chops, pork tenderloin, seared duck breasts, or baked chicken. Yum!
Savory Cherry Compote Recipe
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 20 minutes
- Yield: Makes 2 cups, enough to accompany meat dish for 4 to 6 people
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons minced shallots (can sub red onion)
- 2 1/2 cups pitted sweet cherries, quartered
- 1 cup walnuts, chopped
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup Port, red wine, kirsch, cassis, or cherry juice (or water)
- 1 tablespoon honey
Special equipment:
Method
1 Cook the shallots: Heat the olive oil in a pan in a frying pan on medium heat. Add the shallots and cook them until they just begin to color on the edges, about 2-3 minutes. Stir a few times while they’re cooking.
2 Add the walnuts, rosemary and cherries and stir everything to combine. Turn the heat down to medium and cook until the cherries are soft, about 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a little black pepper and taste for salt.
3 Pour in the Port, wine, kirsch or cassis and the honey, and stir again. Boil this down slowly until the softening cherries and the liquid cook down to a syrupy texture.
Links:
Homemade cherry compote from Apples and Butter
Chipotle lime chicken fingers with sour cherry compote from The Hungry Mouse
Sour cherry compote from Deb of Smitten Kitchen
