Cherries in 5 different kinds of Alcohol with Sago Risotto

I never had a cherry compote like this kind. At first I laughed about the amount of bottles I had to carry to the kitchen, later the whole apartment smelled like a distillery. I exchanged the Amaretto for a hazelnut liqueur. I hate Amaretto because it reminds me of marzipan.

This cherry compote I will make definitely again as long as it is cherry season here. It goes great with ice cream.

Making a risotto with sago pearls was new to me too. The recipe is one of Eckart Witzigmann´s.
I changed it a little to my preferences. The recipe called for fresh coconut to break open and get some shavings out. I did not get any and used dried coconut flakes.

recipe for the compote:
300 g good quality cherries
250 ml red wine
200 ml Port wine
150 ml Creme de Cassis
20 ml cherry schnaps
10 ml Amaretto
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/2 vanilla bean
10 g vanilla pudding powder
Juice of a lemon
Juice of an orange
10 g honey

Pit the cherries and cook the pits with red wine and Port for 2 min. Get the pits out.
Add the creme de Cassis liqueur and cinnamon and vanilla and cook down to 500 ml.
Add the kirsch and Amaretto.
In a bowl mix the juice of lemon and orange with the Pudding powder and stir it into the hot sauce, let it get back to a boil and cook for 1 min, add the cherries and get the pot off the heat.
Cool it down to room temperature. Take out the cinnamon and vanilla sticks.

recipe for the Risotto for 4:

160 g sago pearls
pinch of fresh grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
a bit grated ginger
60 g white sugar
400 g coconut milk
50 ml whole milk
coconut flakes

In a pot with a lot of boiling water blanche the sago for 2 min, drain.
Clean the pot.
Grate nutmeg and ginger into the pot and add salt and the sago.
Pout 1/3 of the coconut milk in and loosen the sago, cook on low heat and slowly add more coconut milk and if needed a bit of milk. Stir often.
It takes About 15-20 min until the sago has the Right consistency, like risotto.
Pour into 4 bowls and let it cool down.

Serve with coconut shavings and some cherries on top, the rest on the side.