Sour Cherry Soup

(click to enlarge)	Sour Cherry Soup - Cold Hungary - Hideg Meggyleves
(click to enlarge)	Serves: Effort: Sched: DoAhead:	6 dessert ** 3 min Yes		In Hungary this is served as a soup before the main course. In North America it's served as a dessert. There are many variations (see Note-3) and no official "right way".

1
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1/2
5
1/2
1/8
1/4
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2
1/3

#
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c
c
t
t
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T
c

Sour Cherries (1)
-- Broth
Lemon Zest
Water
Sugar (2)
Cinnamon
Salt
---------
Flour
Sour Cream

Make: - (30 min)

Wash CHERRIES, stem and pit them, retaining all juice. A good cherry pitter works well here.
Grate ZEST (yellow only) from 1/2 LEMON.
Mix all Broth items in a non-reactive pot. Bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Taste for flavor and adjust if needed.
Stir Cherries into Broth and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Stir Flour into Sour Cream and whip thoroughly to blend. Slowly spoon about 1/4 cup of the liquid into the sour cream, stirring as you add, then stir the mix into the soup pot. Bring to a simmer and simmer until it thickens just a bit, about another 4 minutes.
Chill soup thoroughly, keeping it closely covered to keep it from skinning over.
Serve chilled. You can garnish with a dollop of whipped cream or pass additional sour cream on the side.

NOTES:

Sour Cherries:
Fresh or frozen - weight is after pitting. For fresh cherries Expect 1-1/4 pounds to yield 1 pound after stemming and pitting - and perhaps add a bit more for pilfering.
Sugar:
Regular granulated sugar is most commonly used. I've cut it back to 1/2 cup. Most Hungarian recipes would use about 3/4 cup but I like it less sweet and more fruity, or you could go 2/3 cup as a compromise.
Variations:
- Sherry: Some add a couple tablespoons of dry sherry right at the end of cooking, and I follow this practice.
- Cream: Some Hungarians use regular heavy cream rather than sour cream and may adjust the sourness with lemon juice. They may also use more cinnamon.
- Cherries, Morello: Quite a few recipes (particularly ones written in North America) specify morello cherries from jars. Some reserve the syrup for beverages, but Saveur magazine (#112) uses the syrup along with the cherries and skips the sugar.
- Cherries, Sweet: If no other are available sweet cherries can be used, preferably with some cherry juice added, and adjust the sourness to taste with lemon juice.
- Thickener: Some use a slurry of Arrowroot and water to thicken the soup instead of the traditional flour. Not too much, the soup should be quite "soupy".
- Fruit: Other sour fruit are used for this soup instead of cherries, particularly Black Currants, Rhubarb and Gooseberries.
U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste

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Sour Cherry Soup - Cold

Sour Cherries:

Sugar:

Variations: