Friday, November 26, 2010

An Explosion of Cranberries

One of my favorite things to do during Thanksgiving is to make up a batch of cranberry sauce. Today was the day! And it's so easy I can't believe anyone buys the shit in a can.


Start out with the juice of a navel orange, and grate most of the skin with it. Add in about half a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, and I toss in a shot of Bouchant. Heat it on medium until the sugar dissolves and it's steaming.



Toss in a 12-ounce bag of those wild and crazy berries and crank the heat up a notch. Start stirring.



Soon they'll start to pop and you are on your way! After about 10 or 12 minutes they should begin to get frothy. This is when I gradually ease off on the heat, and keep stirring.

This will begin to turn into the familiar sight of cranberry sauce. There are always a few who resist popping and when it's pretty obvious you have sauce, and those holdouts don't seem eager to participate, I'll start mashing those against the side of the pan to facilitate the process. Then move the pan off the heat.



At this point I toss in a handful of lightly toasted pecans (that's about half a cup for those of you who insist on measuring EVERYTHING) and stir. Let it cool then chill it in the fridge. I've had a batch of this last me 2 ... even 3 weeks maybe. I figure I'll be making another batch just before Christmas.

Heavenly holiday bliss!

Oh, and while I was doing this, txrad was making hamburger buns!



I'm thinking a dab of cranberry sauce on the veggie burger tonight wouldn't be terribly awful.

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