Recipes

This recipe comes from Graham Garrett at The West House, deep in the heart of Cherry country. The tang of his simple goats curd cheesecake is a good foil to the fruitiness of English cherries.

Serves 6

For the Cheesecakes

    375g fresh goats curd
    125g golden caster sugar
    1 vanilla pod
    Juice and zest of ½ lemon
    4 large free range eggs, separated
    15g plain flour

For the Poached cherries

    1 kg of English cherries, stoned
    1 bottle of ruby port
    300g golden castor sugar    
    1 cinnamon stick    
    1 star anise
    1 vanilla pod
    Zest of 1 orange
    1 blade of mace
    100ml Cognac

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Beat together the goats curd and sugar until soft and creamy. Split the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds into the mixture along with the finely grated lemon zest and juice.
Beat in the egg yolks and gently fold in the flour. In a clean bowl whisk egg whites to soft peaks, then fold into the curd mixture.

Butter and flour six tartlet tins or one large tin then bake the oven for about 12 minutes or until just set. This will take a little longer for a large tin. Leave to cool to room temperature before turning out.

To poach the cherries, bring everything to the boil in a pan and simmer gently for 3 minutes. Pour immediately over the cherries making sure they are all submerged. Leave to macerate for as long as possible.

To serve, simply place a curd cheesecake on a plate and spoon the cherries on top. This is best eaten when everything is at room temperature. If you feel the need to be more elaborate you can reduce some of the poaching liquor and drizzle over the cherries.