Cranberry Sauce - It's not just for Turkey anymore.

As a tot growing up in the 70's my first memories of cranberry sauce were of a very gelatinous, deep red cylinder, squeezed out of a can, once per year, to go along side our Thanksgiving turkey.  My father really enjoyed the stuff, but to a 10 year old growing up in deep south Texas, it was scary stuff.  It didn't even look like food.  And why would I want to spoil the salty gravy laden goodness of my turkey with a big slice of some sort of mystery berry jello anyway.  I don't remember ever trying it.

By the time I started hosting Thanksgiving dinners of my own, fresh cranberries had become a common site in just about every grocery store during the fall and winter.  I decided to give cranberry sauce a try, but no way was I going to start by opening a can.  How difficult could it be really.  I grabbed a bag of berries and read the directions on the back...

Place berries in a saucepan with 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and boil gently for 10 minutes.

Wait...what?  Is that IT?  Why the hell are people buying this stuff in cans?  I went ahead and made a batch.  It was yummy.  Sweet, tart, and perfect for cutting the fatty richness of everything else traditionally served on Thanksgiving.  Now I got it.

However the recipe yields 2 cups of the stuff, so I wound up with well over a cup of leftovers.   I tried some on toast for breakfast and had my second revelation.  Cranberry sauce isn't a sauce at all.  It's a jam...and one of the easiest ones ever to make.

The next year I made the stuff again a few times, but I applied some tweaks to make my Cranberry Jam more interesting.  Here's what I settled on.

Iggy's Cranberry Sauce Jam
1 12oz bag of fresh cranberries
grated zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (preferably Vietnamese)


Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and boil gently for 10 to 15 minutes, until the jam has thickened a bit and the berries have begun to break down.  Don't worry if it doesn't appear very think.  It will definitely set up.  

If you've never made jam before here are a few pointers.

• Don't walk away from it.  In the first 5 minutes, it's going to foam up quite a bit, and if you aren't there to stir it down, you could burn your house down.  
• Most jams require a good long simmer to reach the point where they jell.  That is not the case with cranberries, because they are absolutely loaded with pectin.
• You could make a big batch of this, and put it up in sterilized jars, but what's the point, since it only takes 10 minutes to make.

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a recipe for Egg Nog French Toast.  It's hardly a recipe really.  All you do is take good quality egg nog, pour it over sliced bread (I like challah), and cook it on a griddle.  See egg nog has all the ingredients that typically go into French toast batter, so it works beautifully.  But what does this have to do with cranberries you might ask?  Well, I serve my egg nog French toast with cranberry maple syrup.  Simply mix 1/2 cup real maple syrup with 1/2 cup of cranberry sauce/jam.  It's a breakfast that screams "Smile damn it, it's the holidays".

Here's one more recipe I found for leftover cranberry sauce.  I make cranberry sauce throughout the winter just so I can have these muffins because they are so damn tasty.

Cranberry Sauce Muffins

- makes about 12 muffins -

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups of leftover cranberry sauce
1/2 cup skim milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

Procedure

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Grease muffin tin or line with paper baking cups. 

2. In a large bowl, combine regular flour, whole wheat flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; mix well. In medium bowl, combine milk, oil, cranberry sauce and egg; blend well. Fold into dry ingredients all at once; stir until dry ingredients are moistened. 

3. Fill muffin cups about three-quarters full. 

4. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.