Hungarian Cold Sour Cherry Soup

Okay: it's STILL hot in Texas (what's new?), I am STILL hesitant to spend more time next to the oven than necessary, and The Husband and The Lizard Queen kept bugging me about this soup, so Sunday night I finally made it the first time in the US...now that we discovered that the local Kroger stocks real canned sour cherry in the International section.

You will need:

1 24 oz. glass jar of sour cherries, already stemmed and pitted, drained. You can use the light syrup as a cold fruit drink, it's traditional
6 cups of water (by the way, if in a hard water area like us, do everyone in your family a favor and invest in either a BRITA pitcher or a filter on your kitchen tap. The results of using filtered water for coffee, soups and just plain ol' drinking water are rather dramatic...)
2 tablespoons of sugar
pinch of salt
1 tbsp. of real lemon juice (or more if you prefer it more sour)
4-5 cloves
1 piece of cinnamon (about 2-inches long, or 1 tsp. ground. Traditionally it is the Ceylon variety that is used in Eastern Europe, I am not sure how Korintje would taste..or even Vietnamese..hmmm. I'd expect you'd need less lemon as those are somewhat more lemony in their middle tones)
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1 heaping tablespoon of flour (unbleached is just fine)

Method:
1. Place cinnamon and cloves into 1 cup of water and prepare a spice reduction by cooking over gentle heat (just boiling) for about 8-10 minutes. Strain, reserve water in a larger pot.
2. Add remaining water, sour cherries, lemon juice, salt and sugar. Bring to a boil and cook for about 8 minutes or until cherries are just tender.
3. Mix half pint of the cream, the sour cream and the flour in a small bowl. Ladle some of the hot cherry liquid into it, mix well until smooth and pour back to soup while it is off the heat source. Mix fast and well until smooth.
4. Return to heat and cook JUST until it starts to thicken a bit, about 2 minutes. Stir continuously to avoid curdling. Taste and season, if needed with more lemon or sugar.
5. Pull off heat and cool first in a cool place in your kitchen then in fridge or freezer until totally cold.
6. Whip the remaining cream until stiff: serve soup with dollops of whipped cream and some sprinkles of cinnamon if desired.

VARIATIONS: This same recipe can be used also with strawberries, peaches or with raspberries and blackberries in a 1:1 ratio. In these variations, you can puree some of the fruit after cooking to intensify the flavor.