Cheesecake w/ Cherry Crust

Better late than never, right? There are four hours left this month and year, and I'm finally posting my recipe. I had the idea a few weeks ago, but hadn't the time nor the audience to test out this recipe.

As I have before, I used a recipe from Small Batch Baking for this month's recipe. I chose a generic cheesecake recipe to get the idea on how to make it, but of course put my own twist on it.

With dried cherries the ingredient, my idea was to make a cheesecake, with crushed dried cherries as part of the crust. The easy thing to do would be to add the dried cherries to the cheesecake batter, but that just ain't me. Instead, I added it to the graham cracker crust.

Ideally, the cherries would be ground up fine, incorporated smoothly in the crust. I tried freezing the cherries and grinding them in a coffee grinder to no avail. I even went on a hunt through Erie, PA for some dry ice. No dice. So I just chopped them as fine as I could and mixed them with the crust, and it worked well!

Having never made a cheesecake before, I am pleased with the result. The chunks of cherry in the crust were noticeable enough to work well, and I'm glad I wasn't able to grind them any finer. Since I'm inexperienced, I turned the small-batch cheesecakes face down on plates and called it good enough. They certainly tasted good, and the audience (wife and in-laws) was pleased. I had planned on making a chocolate whipped cream to put on top, but time was running short. Again, there are only four hours left this month! But the dessert definitely needed a sauce of some sort. Next time.

Duck in Red Wine Cherry Sauce

Watching Julie and Julia inspired my choice of dishes for this month. I adapted a "Two Fat Ladies" recipe for duck, reducing the amount of fat they used, and adding this month's ingredient, dried cherries. This is a delectable dish, recommended for a holiday dinner. The best part is that you can make it the night before, and just heat it when ready to serve- the flavors intensify when you reheat the duck. This makes it the perfect dish for a fancy holiday dinner when you'd rather spend time with your guests than at the stove.

Ingredients:

3.5-4 lb duck, rinsed and patted dry, then cut into serving pieces

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 cup all-purpose flour

~2 tbsp olive oil

~ a handful of shallots: 1/2 cup chopped plus 8 medium shallots quartered

4 ounces of bacon (about 4-5 slices), cut into narrow strips

1.5 cups dry red wine, like merlot

14 peppercorns

1 bay leaf

6 oz. dried cherries, divided

2.5 cups chicken stock

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

In a small bowl or pie pan, combine flour and a good amount of salt and pepper. Dredge the duck pieces in the flour mixture. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Sauté the duck pieces until gold brown. Remove the duck pieces and place in a large dutch oven or casserole. Drain the fat from the skillet into a separate container.

(Note: I let the duck fat cool and the dark flour solids settle to the bottom, then poured the good duck fat into a separate container. Then I put the duck fat in the refrigerator, saving it for another delicious use later on.)

Swipe out the pan with a paper towel. Return the pan to medium heat and sauté the bacon and 1/2 cup of chopped shallots. Add the wine, bay leaf, peppercorns and 1/4 cup of the dried cherries. Simmer until the wine is reduced by half. Add the stock and again reduce by half. Strain the sauce and pour over the duck in the dutch oven, discarding the solids. Add the remaining dried cherries to the dutch oven, cover, and place in the oven. After about 20 minutes have passed, melt the butter in a small skillet, and add the quartered shallots. Add the sugar, and sauté the shallots until they are brown (about 10 minutes). Add the shallots to the duck, and stir it all up. Continue cooking another 20-30 minutes, or until the duck is cooked.

I served this with rice, broccoli, squash soup, and the rest of the Merlot. The duck was very tender, and just the perfect level of richness. The sauce was savory with just a hint o sweetness from the shallots and cherries, which become tender through the simmering. This is SOOO yummy.

December: Dried Cherries

Hello all. On Scotts and Pans' authority, I have been granted permission to set this month's challenge. Fresh fruits are difficult to find this time of year, so the ingredient of the month is dried cherries. Sweet or sour, dried cherries are readily available and offer plenty of heart-healthy nutrition. They are also a festive holiday red. (Bonus!)