Cherries at Borough Market

British cherries are here…

When I was about 12 I remember being on the Ile de Ré one summer. My parents were staying in a hotel right on the beach on the south side of the island, and I was staying with a French family, friends of my parents 100 metres up the road. The Ile de Ré used to be really hot in August, something that doesn’t seem to happen anymore and we had dinner at the hotel’s poolside restaurant every evening, something that also doesn’t seem to happen anymore. I remember having the same, incredible pudding every time and I picked it because I am mad about cherries and recognised the French for cherry - cerise on the menu. The dish came out in a large, shallow ramikin and the edges were piping hot. The cherries were pitted and soft and sat in a foamy, vanilla-tasting cream that was almost like a thinner version of pancake batter. It was almost like a sweet soup! I have never had anything like it. A friend of mine suggested it might be a clafouti (a baked French dessert of black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter). However, I’ve tried a few of these in different restaurants and houses and a clafouti tends to be heavier and more solid. I recently had Kaiserschmarren at The Wolseley (can be eaten as a main course, as the Austrians do or shared for dessert) and this was more like a clafouti than my cherry cream soup…recipe suggestions welcome…