Sunday, November 14, 2010

Cranberries—Two Ways

First up…a simple sauce

Cranberry Sauce 001

Cranberry Sauce

  • 4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup orange juice (or water)
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest, plus a little extra for garnish
Combine all the ingredients (except the orange zest you are reserving for garnish) in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for approximately ten minutes (or until the skin on the cranberries pop), stir occasionally. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Now put it in a covered container and refrigerate for up to a week! That’s right…make it ahead and you’ll have one less thing to do on Thanksgiving morning. Garnish with orange zest before serving. Makes 3 1/2 cups.
Variation: Just before serving..before garnishing, stir in 1/3 cup of chopped nuts…your choice: walnuts, pecans, or almonds.

Since I gave you a variation for the cranberry sauce…I guess this should have been titled “Cranberries—3 Ways”…but I digress. On with the next recipe….which is my favorite…but a bit more time consuming.

Molded Cranberry Salad

Yep…that’s right…you get to pull out that Tupperware mold that hasn’t seen the light of day in AGES!
  • 2 (3-oz.)boxes of cherry, raspberry or cranberry gelatin (or a combo of 2)
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 2 cups fresh cranberries
  • 1 cup pecan or walnut pieces
  • 2 large oranges, seeded and quartered (that’s right LEAVE the rind ON the orange)
  • 1 carrot, peeled and cut into 5 or 6 pieces OR 3-4 baby carrots, cut in half
  • 1 (8-oz.)can crushed pineapple in juice, drained
  • 3/4 cup sugar
In a large mixing bowl, combine gelatin and boiling water, stirring until gelatin dissolves. Add cold water and refrigerate until it is the consistency of unbeaten egg whites.
In food processor with knife blade, add: cranberries,nuts, oranges and carrots. Pulse until mixture is finely chopped. In a med. bowl, combine cranberry mixture, pineapple and sugar. Mix well. Fold cranberry mixture into gelatin mixture. Pour into a lightly oiled 6 1/2 cup mold. Cover and chill until set. (I usually make this the day before serving) When ready to serve, unmold onto a serving plate. If you like, you can line the plate first with lettuce or cabbage leaves.
NOTE: Sometimes, despite your BEST effort, a congealed salad wants to fall apart when you try to unmold it. Although, I don’t remember it ever happening with this particular recipe. HOWEVER, if it does…don’t sweat it. Dump it into large serving bowl and stir it to break it up….you know…to make it look like it was SUPPOSED to be a relish instead of molded!

Bon Appetit!

Sammi

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...