Sour black cherries in syrup – Amarene sciroppate – Višnje u sirupu

I adore sour taste of fruits while not too ripe. For the same reason I prefer jam made of sour black cherries. Sour black cherries always have slightly sour taste (they have it in the name too!), they are not too sweet, but their flavour is absolutely perfect. I find the best ripe fruits at the end of June in the near village at my friend’s orchard. I want them to be fresh and not “stressed” because of long traveling to reach our city market. And then the “big” work can begin. It takes some time to pit all these tiny fruits, if you do it manually…and how do I do it? Manually, of course, but in this way my preserves are even more tasty!
Usually I bring my “preserves for winter” from Croatia, homemade by my mother, but in last years I started to prepare them by my own too, following the family recipes and traditions. It makes me so satisfied and proud, because these (my!) preserves are so good! And my parents are so curious to taste some of my “creations”. I like to experiment new combinations and flavours and they are so fascinated by this. So now, when I go back home, I usually bring with me some preserves too. Isn’t it extraordinary? In August, when I get back home, I’m sure I will find jars full of sour black cherries taking sun immersed in liquefied sugar and grappa waiting to become liquor.
This year I wanted to try something different then the ordinary jam (of course the jam was prepared too)!I also red Angela’s cookbook (“Racconti di Cucina” written by Angela Frenda) and I’ve found a similar recipe that inspired me and made me think about the sour black cherry liquor my mother prepare each summer. But I wanted to prepare something with no alcohol. So I have done some research in the web, I’ve found so many different recipes and at the end I have decided to combine all these new knowledge and prepared my sour black cherries in syrup!
.....and now I have enough cherry stones to make homemade cherry stone boule. I don't like to waste, so I try to use almost everything.....

SOUR BLACK CHERRIES IN SYRUP

1 kg of sour black cherries (clean and dry cherries without stones)

½ kg of sugar

Pit fresh sour black cherries, put them into a boiling pot and cover the fruits with the sugar. Leave it for 24 hours in a covered pot and allow to the sugar to liquefy. After that time warm it up on a low heat and cook for 5 minutes. Put cherries into colander. The syrup should boil slowly for another 15 minutes. During that time continue adding the juice that will drain from the fruits to the syrup. Add cherries to the syrup, cook together for another 5 minutes and then allow to cool down. Repeat it once more time, then extract cherries from the syrup, put them into clean jars and let the syrup boil for another 15 minutes until one half of the syrup boil down. Pour boiling syrup into jars over the cherries and close them hermetically.

La ricetta in italiano
AMARENE SCIROPPATE 

1 kg di amarene (lavate, asciugate e denocciolate)
½ kg di zucchero

Denocciolare le amarene fresche, sistemarle in una casseruola e coprirle con lo zucchero. Lasciare riposare per 24 ore (in una casseruola coperta) fino a quando lo zucchero si sarà sciolto. Trascorso questo tempo scaldare il composto e farlo cuocere a fuoco basso per 5 minuti. Scolare le amarene e far bollire lo sciroppo per altri 15 minuti aggiungendo nello sciroppo il liquido che sarà sgocciolato dalle amarene. Aggiungere le amarene nello sciroppo e far bollire insieme per altri 5 minuti. Far raffreddare il composto. Ripetere questo passaggio un’altra volta. Dopodiché estrarre le amarene dallo sciroppo e sistemarle nei vasetti di vetro puliti. Lasciare bollire lo sciroppo per altri 15 minuti fino a quando si sarà ridotto a metà. Versare lo sciroppo bollente sulle amarene nei vasetti e richiuderli ermeticamente.

Recept na Hrvatskom 
VIŠNJE U SIRUPU 

1 kg višanja (oprane, suhe i bez koštica)
½ kg šećera

Odstraniti koštice iz svježih višanja, staviti višnje u posudu za kuhanje i pokriti ih šećerom. Ostaviti da odmaraju 24 sata (u poklopljenoj posudi za kuhanje) da bi se šećer otopio. Potom zagrijati smjesu i huhati na tihoj vatri 5 minuta. Izvaditi višnje u cjedilo i dalje kuhati sirup oko 15 minuta dodavajući u sirup sok koji će se iscijediti iz višanja. Dodati višnje u sirup i kuhati zajedno još 5 minuta. Ostaviti da se ohladi. Ponoviti kuhanje još jedanput. Izvaditi višnje iz sirupa i napuniti ih u čiste staklenke. Kuhati sirup još 15 minuta dok se ne pokuha polovica tekućine. Naliti sirup u staklenke preko višanja i hermetički zatvoriti staklenke.