Husk Cherry Clafoutis with Cantaloupe and Cucumber Yogurt

     Every year, it seems as though summer is getting shorter and shorter. It still feels like it has only been a few weeks since the warm weather arrived, although it is already packing up it's belongings and preparing to slowly slip out of our grasp as fall washes over the East Coast. While the end of summer is a sad time for most, it is always a bittersweet time for me. Bitter, of course, because soon the glorious season of abundance will be gone, along with all of the light, crisp summer vegetables. However, it is also very sweet for a few reasons. First of all, the end of summer means that fall is almost here, and nothing is quite as nostalgic and quaint as the corn maze navigating, pumpkin picking, fire-side reading season of autumn. The second reason to love the end of summer isn't because of what is to come in the months ahead, but what is already here - husk cherries. These tiny husked fruit begin to pop up for a short time at farmers markets in New England towards the end of summer, and what a glorious short time it is.
   If you are not familiar with husk cherries, they look - at first glance - like miniature tomatillos, carefully wrapped in a delicate natural packaging, giving them a great presentation as an after-dinner-snack when entertaining guests. Although the husk isn't what makes this fruit so special. Once you unwrap a husk cherry, it is a small yellow cherry-tomato-looking thing with a very unique taste. Some people say that they taste like pineapples, while others compare them to mangos. To me, the flavor falls somewhere between a mango, a kumquat and a sweet, just picked tomato.

    Recently, I found some husk cherries at a farmers market, and I wasn't exactly sure what to do with them. While the idea of a chutney or tart sounded delicious, I couldn't help but feel like such a unique and rare fruit needs to be treated simply and left whole, so that it can be appreciated for exactly what it is. I eventually settled on a clafoutis-kind-of. A clafoutis is an old school rustic French dessert. The kind of thing that house wives have been making for ages. A traditional French clafoutis consists of cherries, which are placed in a baking pan and have a almond-flavored custard batter poured over them before being baked in the oven. This recipe differs from a traditional clafoutis in two ways. First, that we will be using husk cherries instead of cherries, and second, that we will be using vanilla extract to flavor the custard rather than almond extract. I personally find that the delicate flavor of vanilla does more to compliment the light sweetness of the husk cherries, although you can use almond extract if you prefer. This dessert tastes best when served still-warm with a spoonful of a cold cucumber and cantaloupe melon yogurt to offset the sweetness with tart and refreshing flavors.

 

 

Husk Cherry Clafoutis

1 Pint Husk Cherries

2 Large Eggs

2/3 Cups sugar

2/3 Tbsp Flour

1/2 Cup Whole Milk

1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

 

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour a gratin dish or oven-safe pan and spread the husk cherries evenly throughout the bottom of the pan. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs along with the flour and sugar. When they are well beaten, add the milk and vanilla extract. Pour your custard batter into the baking dish, just enough to almost cover the husk cherries. Put the clafoutis in the oven until the top begins to brown and it is cooked through. A knife or fork - when inserted into the custard - should come out clean. While your clafoutis in baking, you can make this simple yogurt topping.

 

 

Cucumber Cantaloupe Yogurt

 

Plain yogurt(Preferably from a local artisan producer such as Narragansett Creamery)

Cucumber, finely diced

Cantaloupe, finely diced

 

 

You may have noticed that there are no quantities listed for these ingredients, and that is mostly because there really is no right or wrong way to make this. Add more or less of each ingredient as you would like. The cantaloupe adds sweetness; the cucumber adds a refreshing element and the yogurt adds a tart flavor, so keep that in mind when choosing your quantities. Of course, if it doesn't come out how you would like, then you can always add more of any ingredient, and if plain yogurt is too tart for you, feel tree to add some honey or agave nectar. To prepare the sauce, simply fold the cucumber and cantaloupe gently into the yogurt Be careful not to mix your yogurt too much or it will become thin and runny. To serve, wait for your clafoutis to cool to just above room temperature, use a spatula to scoop some onto a plate, and add a spoonful of the yogurt. This makes an excellent sweet treat for a summer afternoon spent sitting in the sun.