Basic Cranberry Sauce Recipe (cooked)
Ingredients
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup water
* 4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
* Optional Pecans, orange peel, raisins, currants, blueberries, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice.
Method
1 Wash and pick over cranberries. In a saucepan bring to a boil water and sugar, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add cranberries, return to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst.
2 At this point you can add all number of optional ingredients. We typically mix in a half a cup of roughly chopped pecans with or without a few strips of orange peel. You can add a cup of raisins or currants. You can add up to a pint of fresh or frozen blueberries for added sweetness. Spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice can be added too.
3 Remove from heat. Cool completely at room temperature and then chill in refrigerator. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.
Cranberry sauce base makes 2 1/4 cups.
Cranberry Relish Recipe (raw)
Preparation time: 15 minutes.
Ingredients
* 2 cups washed raw cranberries
* 2 skinned and cored apples
* 1 large, whole (peel ON) seedless orange, cut into sections
* 2 cups granulated sugar
Method
1 Set up the grinder with a medium-sized blade on the edge of a table with a large roasting pan or bowl to catch the mix as it grinds. These old fashioned grinders tend to leak some of the juice down the grinder base, so you may want to set up an additional pan on the floor under the grinder to catch the drips. If you don’t have an old-fashioned grinder you can use a grinder attachment on a KitchenAid mixer, you can chop by hand (though that will take a lot of work), or you can chop in a food processor (be very careful not to over-pulse, or you’ll end up with mush).
2 Run fruit through a grinder. Use the entire (seedless) orange, peels, pith and all.
3 Mix in the sugar. Let sit at room temperature until sugar dissolves, about 45 minutes. Store in the refrigerator.
Makes about 3 cups.
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From Elise Bauer’s Simply Recipes” website.
October 28th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Dates can be substituted for the sugar (probably not a 1:1 ratio, pulse in dates to your taste)
A couple of cans of mandarin oranges can be substituted for the fresh orange, and if you add the pear juice that comes in the can, it’s nice and saucy/dressingish as opposed to relishy. That’s when processing it to mush is a good thing!
The mandarin oranges taste less aggressive than the orange with its peel. Or just omit the peel!
November 5th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
I didn’t know anybody made sugar locally. Why not sweeten your cranberry sauce with maple syrup, honey, home-grown stevia, or even fruit, such as apples?