Cherries in Wine with Cardamom Cream and Rose Pistachio Shortbread

Photo: Laura Edwards

August 08, 2018

As summer puts every movement into slow motion, the season’s bounty offers an easy opt-in to involved entertaining. “This is not the time for making complicated food,” The Sunday Telegraph columnist Diana Henry says in her newest cookbook, How to Eat a Peach. Plucked at their peak, fresh cherries offer unrivaled flavor, and here, they’re simmered in wine and served over whipped cardamom cream, with pistachio shortbread for dipping.

Ingredients

Yield:6

For the cherries
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups Valpolicella, Pinot Noir, or other cherry-ish red wine
2 broad strips of unwaxed lemon zest
2 lbs. sweet or sour cherries (pitted or unpitted)
3 Tbsp. kirsch (optional)
Squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
____________________________
For the shortbread
1 2/3 sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar, plus more for serving
Pinch of sea salt flakes
Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2/3 cup cornstarch
1 tsp. rose water
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup shelled, unsalted pistachios, chopped
Candied rose petals (optional)
____________________________
For the cream
seeds from 4 green cardamom pods
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
Powdered sugar (optional)

Preparation

To make the cherries, combine the sugar, wine, strips of lemon zest, and a scant cup of water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring to help the sugar dissolve, then continue to boil for 8 minutes. Reduce the heat and add the cherries, letting the mixture simmer for 4 minutes. Lift the cherries out of the saucepan with a slotted spoon and place them on a rimmed baking pan; they will stop cooking if they’re not touching one another.

Let the syrup cool, then taste and add a slug of kirsch if you want to, or a good squeeze of lemon juice to cut the sugar a bit, depending on the sweetness of the cherries. Put the cooled cherries in a bowl and pour the red wine syrup over them.

To make the cookies, use a mixer to beat together the butter and powdered sugar until creamy, then add the salt and lemon zest and beat again. With the mixer set on low, add the flour, cornstarch, and rose water, mixing until combined. Remove the dough from the mixer, and on a lightly floured surface shape it into a log about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Brush the outside of the dough with beaten egg, then roll it in the pistachios. Carefully wrap the log in foil and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Cut the log into disks about 1/8-inch thick and arrange them 1 inch apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes—they will turn a little golden around the edges—then let cool for 10 minutes. Carefully lift the baked cookies onto a wire rack with a metal spatula. Before serving, sift a little powdered sugar over the top and scatter with candied rose petals.

Grind the cardamom seeds in a mortar and pestle or spice mill. Pour the cream into a bowl and add the cardamom, then whip the cream to soft peaks, adding powdered sugar to taste.

Serve the cherries over the cardamom cream alongside the shortbread.