My friend Jennifer made a delicious cranberry relish for Thanksgiving with our family this year. I was roasting turkey tonight and Reid pulled out the frozen cranberries and asked to eat them. He actually meant as a snack, but I took it as devine intervention. :-) He and Grant each ate one raw. (I first extracted a promise that they would keep their minds open to future dishes involving cranberries even if they were too sour straight-up. ) Brent and I enjoyed the funny faces they made as they chewed! (insert internal evil laugh here)
Jennifer's relish calls for 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, 1 bag of cranberries, orange rind and orange zest. It was fresh and vibrant and delicious at Thanksgiving!!
However, tonight I was missing those yummy oranges. Minor, you might say, but they really gave a depth of flavor I wanted. Plus, I was going to substitute for the white sugar, anyway, so why not keep going veering off the path?? I added a two small glugs of lemon juice, substituted 2 packs of stevia and a large glug of maple syrup for the sugar, and then decided to add a chopped apple and some raisens. I cooked it until the cranberries fell apart (it was too soupy when they "popped") and then I cooled it. MMMmmmmmmm, huge hit! It was delicious with the turkey (and alone, and also later on top of ice cream). Obviously delicious, but I was looking for the body that Jennifer's had so next time I will cook the cranberries until they are about to pop and then add the apples and take it off the heat. Hopefully I can get the cranberries to keep some "body" and get the apples crisp-tender.
The color was so beautiful. This picture doesn't do it justice.
6 comments:
It looks delicious! I love homemade cranberry relish and make it every year. I think I'm the only one who prefers it over the canned variety in my extended family.
I always use maple syrup to make mine also. I think it gives it a great taste :)
I remember Clay taking a big bite of a cranberry when I made it for Thanksgiving, your right, the face it quite comical!
Hi, Erica. Are you all settled in?
So what's your general recipe? I'm new to the cranberry scene (we always had that canned gel!) and really enjoying the experiments (I also made a cranberry nut bread recently...still needs tweaking)
BTW, I continue to be inspired by your meal planning...I haven't done it much yet, but each Monday it seems a little less daunting :-)
Hey Whitney! I always make homemade cranberry sauce and use a similar recipe! I really like the texture of the cranberries
It's my favorite!!!
- Jenina
Jenina! You emerged from lurkdom!
*huge smile!*
We are all settled in and are enjoying the new space. It will be so much fun once we get out of winters grip and can enjoy all the new joys of farm life! Thank you so much for asking :)
As far as my recipe. I just wing it, but it's amazingly simple and pretty much just like what The Pioneer Woman Cooks has on her site for Cranberry sauce.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/11/homemade-cranberry-sauce/
Hopefully that link will work, haha :)
I have to add, my favorite part about making cranberry sauce is listening to the cranberries pop, haha!! Oh boy it's really late and I should get to bed, I'm almost giddy right now............
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