The 'fresh' cherries from Chile that we had for dessert last night following our main course of Halibut fillets in a crisp blanket of egg and seasoned Panko alongside sweet potato rounds baked in the oven, preceded by a fresh vegetable salad, did not in fact taste as wonderful as we hoped they would. So I thought the best thing to do with the rest of the cherries would be to use them as a topping with a little bit of cognac flavouring, for a cheesecake.

I always like to have cream cheese in the refrigerator. If it's flavoured with smoked salmon we enjoy it on toast for breakfast. If it's plain, it has many uses, among them cheesecake filling. Every few months or so I decide to bake a cheesecake, and this morning was the day. Starting out with a simple graham cracker crust, a mixture of crumbs, sugar and butter patted into the bottom of an oval baking pan, I partially bake the crust, then set about with the filling.

I thought of grating lemon rind for the cheesecake, then thought not because of the cherries and the cognac. So I used two 250-gram boxes of creamcheese, three eggs, a quarter-cup of sour cream, three-quarters cup of granulated sugar and pure vanilla extract (though I don't see anything wrong with artificial extract, actually) and beat it together until smooth, pouring it into the partially baked crust, then returning it to my trusty little countertop convection oven.

While that was baking I halved and pitted the cherries, mixed a tablespoon of cornstarch with a quarter-cup sugar and a third-cup cranberry juice, and simmered it all together until the cherries were al dente and the liquid thickened (then added cognac flavouring), to pour over the cheesecake once it had cooled.

We expect now that the cherries will be more to our taste.