Meggy Leves (Cherry Soup) Part Deux and Giveaway!!

Happy Monday all!

I have been INSANELY busy this past week. Painting, getting the house presentable for our housewarming this weekend (when is it ever presentable, really?), getting in my 8 mile training run in (woot woot! 1:35:06 run/walk holla!)  and checking out an art opportunity in downtown San Jose ….. I still managed to squeeze in a cooking session.

I have been craving my aunt’s famous Hungarian CherryCake but didn’t really have the time to make everything from scratch. I needed something quick and simple that would hit the Hungarian Cherry spot (no puns intended).  But anything with cherries really requires them to be pitted and I HATE pitting cherries.

Hate it. It’s right up there with having to wash dishes. Though strangely enough I like peeling and coring apples. (Less violence I guess).

It would take me a good 1/2 hour or more to cut and pit cherries by hand and I would come away with a few more cuts than I would like and my counter and clothes looking like a scene from Dexter.

Then angels of the web opened up and OXO offered up some cherry pitters to some bloggers for review. I submitted my request.  And eventually got a shiny new pitter!

I finally got to use it yesterday and, baby, I love it.  It seriously cut my preparation time with the cherries by more than half. I just popped them cherries into the little nook, pressed the mechanism and out popped the pit. Okay, sometimes the pit hung on, but was like 4 out of 40 cherries and it could have been because I placed the cherry the wrong way.

Read directions.

It’s simple really. Amazingly simple. And guess what? No cuts, no wondering if that’s a cherry juice stain or what, and I got more meat from the cherries than trying to rip them off with a knife and my fingers. (I told you I am violent with my cherries).  But no more violence!

I really wished I had gotten OXO’s pitter sooner and saved me from all the bodily harm and fear of making cherry dishes. Sad that cherry season is mostly over, but you can bet that this tool will be in my holster for next season!

And what did I make with my freshly pitted cherries?

Hungarian Cherry Soup!

Fast, easy, versatile and delicious. I had made it before last year (post).  But didn’t want to try again with the cherry workload. This time around, pitter worked like a charm and I was cooking up my soup within minutes.

It’s not a hot soup. Actually, it’s supposed the be served cold so it’s perfect for a hot summer day (like yesterday, today, tomorrow) and you can suit it to your tastes. Sweet, sour, brothy or creamy….it’s allllllllll gooooood.

I went the creamy sour route.  If you want something more sweet or brothy (sans sour cream) you can see my other variations on the soup on this post. I veganized it last time as well.  

 Hungarian Sour Cherry Soup

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds stemmed and pitted Morello (sour) cherries or Bing  (or, if you don’t have a pitter get 2 24oz jars of Morellos*, or 2 bags of frozen cherries) Retain the juice!

2-3 cups  water

1/3 cup  red wine (completely optional)

2 tbs sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 of a lemon

8 ozs sour cream

Directions:

In a large pot, add the water, wine, sugar, lemon, and cinnamon stick,  and bring to a boil. Be careful not to over boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until cherries are soft. About 5-10 minutes.**

Remove the cinnamon stick  and lemon at the end of cooking.

Remove pot from heat and carefully pour soup into bowl or container to cool.  Retain about 1/2 cup of hot cherry liquid.

In a small bowl, mix the sour cream and the liquid. Don’t worry if it gets clumpy. Just whisk them away

Once mixed thoroughly, SLOWLY stir the mixture into the cherry soup. Mix away any clumps. Place in fridge and cool for about 30 minutes.

Serve into bowls and enjoy!

*My father gave me a jar of Morello’s a while back and I used this along with a 1lb of fresh pitted cherries.

**For some reason in my original post, it took them longer to soften (I was working on a different stove then and everything took forever).

All in the pot. . . .

 

 

Sour cream and cherry liquid. . .

 

Mixing. . .

And into the pot. . .

Chilling like a villian. . .

 

Now, as a child, I remember hating the cherry soup. Back then , I knew soup only to be hot and full of veggies and dumplings or noodles that spelled the alphabet. BUT, as I grew up, my tastebuds opened up and I grew to love this dish.

It’s one of my favorites because it’s quick and easy and because it reminds me of my family back in Hungary. Okay, anything remotely related to Hungary reminds me of them. My loyalty to the USA water polo team is up in the air because Hungary can kick some serious booty.

Anyways, give it a try. Suit it to your tastebuds. Go hog wild with it. Add more wine, take the sour cream out. Last time I used coconut milk!  Sweeten it up. Do what your tastebuds love.  I have tried it with my Overnight Oats and it was soooo yummy. Maybe scoop this up onto some icecream?

And I highly suggest using fresh cherries. They just add more flavor and texture to the dish than any frozen or jarred one can.

And for that you need a pitter. Which brings us to the GIVEAWAY.

While I was wondering if I was to be selected to get a pitter, I went out and bought one. The next day I got the pitter in the mail. Murphy’s Law, right?

SOOOOO…. enter to win a brandspanking new (unused) OXO Cherry/Olive Pitter! 

sidenote: By no means am I sponsored by OXO. I just used their product and wrote up my own personal thoughts in the review.  The said giveaway pitter, I bought on my own.

All you have to do, is:  Comment on this post and tell me what you would create with the cherry/olive pitter?  Cherry pies? Tarts? Olive . . . .?

Extra entries:

1.)  is to follow me on Twitter @themexigarian  

2.) Tweet the following: “I want to win an @OXO Cherry/Olive Pitter from @themexigarian!! ” with a link back to this post.

 and tell me in a separate comment for each, that you have done so

Giveaway ends August 7 11:59 pm PST. I will announce the winner within that week.

 Good luck and enjoy the soup

 

****I will also be entering this in the OXO Cherry Recipe Contest!

 

 

 

I am now eyeballing my Dad’s Olive trees. I got the pitter. I just got to learn how to make the olives edible without killing me. haha.

Tagged as: cherry pitter, giveaway, Hungarian Cherry Soup, Meggy Leves, OXO, soup