Cherry Almond Tart for Father's Day

Yeah, i love cherries - and i have to admit this is the first year i've really been experimenting by cooking with them, my new cherry pitter might have something do with it too. While i ended up making the Talapia and Cherry Salsa first, it was really this recipe i was excited about making.

The fact that it also involved almonds was pretty much the deal sealer. It also required the use of my flan pan - which is pretty much the only decent bakeware i have. I think the making of a really cherry pie will require the purchase of a better pie pan. (ie not aluminum)


This recipe really calls for Kirsch, but after visits to three different LCBO's i was unable to find any. At the last one i finally found some cherry schnapps. I have no idea whether this was an appropriate substitution and when looking it up online i didn't sound like i had the right thing. Well i added it anyway! (I also discovered it was pretty tasty mixed with soda)

You made the "almond cookie" crust ahead and bake it for ten minutes to lightly brown it. It was made with butter, sugar and blanched almonds, vanilla and almond extract, so i knew it was going to be good. While it was baking i pitted some cherries, and made the a simple custard to fill it out. I added the cherries then poured the custard around it - and topped it with some more of the ground almond.


Posting this i haven't tried it yet - its dessert for Father's Day's dinner!!! Looks tasty though

Talapia and Cherry Salsa

It is almost embarrassing how excited i was with my most recent purchase- a cherry pitter. I love cherries, and recently had some good ones with my dessert at Fat Cat. I have always wanted to make cherry pie - so while i was looking for recipes for a suitable cherry pie, i also found a recipe that really intrigued me - it was Talapia with Cherry Salsa. Talapia is such a reasonably priced fish that you can get fresh or frozen - i always like to cook with it.


I of course had to see if my cherry pitter would also work on olives, so i did a few of those, and didn't want to waste them so i made a few little apps with things i had in my fridge (goat cheese, pesto, sundried tomatoes, mozzarella, roasted garlic, tomato and avocado).


The cherry Salsa was really good - it had a nice bite to it, and complimented the fish. I would really make this dish again because it was quite nice on its own too.

Cherry Salsa

1/2 lb of cherries (about 2 cups), pitted and coarsely chopped
1/2 a small red onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro*, chopped
1 large jalapeno, seeds removed and minced
1 tbsp of fresh lime juice
salt and pepper

Mix the ingredients, season to taste and let sit.


*the original recipe called for parsley, but i didn't have any and i can't really stand it anyway


For the sides i did a lemon butter rapini - which i thought was a nice accompaniment - asparagus of course, since i always have it in the fridge. For the potatoes, instead of doing my usual roasted ones, i thought that i would make them sweeter rather than savory, so i roasted them in olive oil, a bit of pepper and maple syrup.

Voila - a very nice and unique meal