Cherry Spoon-Sweet Preserves

THE cornerstone of Greek sweets are the preserves made with the fruits of the seasons. Each home has several different jars of fruit in the pantry, and guests are offered a teaspoon with a glass of water as a welcome to the house.

This is one of the easiest spoon sweets. The true color is a quite unattractive murky yellow, so islanders add a few drops of red food coloring. Instead of that, I prefer to boil a red beet with the cherries, a trick I learned from Tunisian cooks.