Cherries four ways

Cherries are the shortest self-pick season in New Zealand and they arrive at the busiest time of the year. Most of a Central Otago pick gets eaten from the bag on the drive home, which is a perfectly good use, but a few kilos are worth cooking.

Find a cherry pitter before the season. Everything below is faster and less purple with one.

Keeping them

Cherries are the one soft fruit that genuinely keeps: a week in the fridge, longer if you picked them with the stems on and did not wash them. Stems are not decorative. A cherry picked without one has an open wound and starts going the same day.

Cherry clafoutis

Ingredients: 500 g cherries, 3 eggs, 100 g sugar, 100 g flour, 300 ml milk, 30 g melted butter, a pinch of salt, vanilla.

Method: Butter a shallow dish and scatter the cherries in it. Whisk the eggs and sugar, beat in the flour, then the milk, butter and vanilla to a thin batter about the consistency of cream. Pour over the cherries and bake at 180C for 35 to 40 minutes until puffed and set with a slight wobble.

Traditionally the stones stay in, which adds an almond note and slows everyone down at the table. Pit them if children are eating it.

Cherries in syrup

Ingredients: 1 kg pitted cherries, 400 g sugar, 500 ml water, a strip of lemon peel.

Method: Boil the sugar, water and lemon peel for three minutes. Pack the cherries into hot sterilised jars, pour the syrup over to cover, seal, and process in a boiling water bath for twenty minutes. These are what you want in the middle of winter, on rice pudding or with cream.

Pickled cherries

Ingredients: 500 g cherries with stems on, 250 ml red wine vinegar, 150 g sugar, a cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, a few peppercorns.

Method: Bring the vinegar, sugar and spices to a boil, cool completely, then pour over the cherries in a jar. Two weeks in the fridge before opening, and they keep for months. With cold meats, cheese or a Christmas ham they are far better than they sound.

Cherry sauce for the ham

Ingredients: 400 g pitted cherries, 100 g sugar, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, a little water.

Method: Simmer everything for fifteen minutes until thick and glossy, crushing about half the fruit against the side of the pan. Serve warm. It handles a Christmas ham better than anything from a jar, and it uses up the fruit that got bruised on the drive.

Updated 10 September 2026