Asian Cherry Sauce, A Take on traditional plum sauce

This growing season is a fast and furious one for us out here in the Pacific Northwest. Be careful, if you blink and think that fruits and produce will be ready a week later, you just might find yourself out of luck. So pick while you can, be sure to take note of fruit trees in your parks, where you walk when you are out exploring, neighbors who might have fruit trees that they don't want the fruit off of, etc. It's a great way to get summer's bounty to enjoy through the year.

Like for me, finding a wild Montmorency Cherry tree growing when we go walk the dogs. I got very excited! The same type of cherry I had growing in Santa Fe! OH Baby!

Yes these are smaller cherries, but they are some of the juiciest, and you can make so much with them!  And they aren't overly tart or sweet, just perfect little morsels! They grow wild all over out here. And you need to watch them, and pick them as you can because the birds love them and will beat you to them! But they are worth the effort.

They make excellent Jam, Jelly or sauces. And I found they make the best Cherry Bounce! I would venture to say they are probably the juiciest variety out there. I love them.

I will suggest though, that you take the time to find an old style cherry pitter. Like this one:

They will make your work so much easier and faster. You can find a newer one still made through Lehman's online. The bigger cherries will get halved, but because these little guys are so juicy, they won't halve as cleanly. But this tool makes short work of pitting!

Yesterday was the second time I went out to my discovered tree to pick more. They were even more juicy, I thought OH BOY! YUM!

As my friends will tell you, I love to do out of the ordinary for my jams, jellies and sauces. Hey, I can't help it, my creative mind refuses to color inside the lines!

So, with that being said, I sat down to try to find unusual or yummy recipes using cherries. Suffice it to say, there are few out there! So as I was going along trying to figure out what I wanted to make with these yummy morsels, and as I had also picked red plums with the intention of making Asian Plum Sauce, I thought, hell, why not make the sauce using the cherries instead of plums? Yup, that's what I did and now it's history.... mmmmmm, very fragrant and even tastier!

So here is a new twist on another recipe! It's the perfect balance of sweet and tart and nice warmth, which is what we love in traditional plum sauce.

Asian Cherry Sauce

4 cups pitted Montmorency cherries, be sure to strain the pits for that extra juice!
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup finely minced onion, sweet onion is perfect
1+ TBL of dried either crushed or rings of thai chilies
4 cloves of garlic minced fine
1 TBL grated fresh ginger
2 TBL of gluten free soy sauce
1 TBL dried basil

Get your jars ready and the boiling water bath going while you prep the ingredients. Sterilize the jars while you make the sauce.

Add all your ingredients to a stockpot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Continue to boil until the mix is thick and syrupy.
Ladle into hot sterile half pint jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Wipe the rims and threads and ensure the air bubbles are removed. Seal with hot lids and rings.
Process in a boiling water bath 15 minutes. And cool the jars on a folded towel on the counter.
Enjoy that lovely pinging sound of jars sealing!

This makes about 4, 8oz. jars of sauce.

If you try this recipe, I would love to hear how it goes and what you think!