Cherry nice.

Byline: bryan webb

I COULD eat a bag of cherries just like children can eat a bag of sweets. I just love the flavour the only problem is the trail of stones that can be left behind. There is nothing wrong with leaving cherries well alone, especially if they are big, sweet and juicy, but if they are not, here are a few recipes I like to prepare them with.

One dish we enjoyed in Nice the other week was roast pigeon with cherries. It was excellent, but it did remind me a bit of the duck with morello cherries out of a jar, so no prizes for guessing what accompanies duck on the menu at Tyddyn Llan at the moment.

Oddly enough, in a world where seasons of fruit and vegetables have completely broken down and many are available much of the time, the season of cherries always seems very short u gone before we have made the most of them.

When they are in season you can make quite a selection of desserts with cherries, but beware stoning them is a very trying business. Personally I don't recommend the gadgets also used for stoning olives, but I'm the lucky one as I have staff to stone them for me. If you are making a cherry pie or tart for the family, leave the cherries whole and they can have the fun of putting the stones on the side of the plate and counting them out later.

Remember cherry brandy? A drink very close to it and also made out of cherries is Kirsch, a white brandy distilled from cherries. Wild cherries are used on account of their acidity and the bitter almond from the stones, which are crushed in with the fruit. Kirsch is a very handy thing to have in your store cupboard for adding to spontaneous desserts.

At this time of year I use cherries in my almond tart or make them into a cherry soup. A good dish to grace anybody's Sunday lunch table is a cherry clafoutis, made in a shallow baking dish which can be brought to the table to serve. It's a great way to finish off a summer's lunch.

To make the clafoutis you will need 500g of stoned cherries. Scatter over a lightly buttered dish, then sift 30g of plain flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt and 60g of sugar. Gradually beat in four eggs, alternating with 600ml of milk, continue mixing to form a batter mix, add three tablespoons of kirsch and strain through a sieve onto the cherries. Bake at 170i for about 40 minutes until golden brown and set. Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving u it's best served warm to room temperature.

There are many Hungarian cherry soup recipes, called meggyleves, but none to equal this one, which was served at the famous Gay Hussar restaurant in Soho, London and was devised by the restaurant's original owner Victor Sassie.

Bryan Webb is owner/chef of Tyddyn Llan, Llandrillo, near Corwen