Countdown to Thanksgiving: Cranberries

Countdown to Thanksgiving: Cranberries

It’s November and thankfully the elections are over, so what’s next? If you walk into most stores you’d think there’s nothing going on between Halloween and Christmas. Of course that’s not true and for those of us who love food, Thanksgiving is our major holiday. For the next few weeks I’m going to highlight some of the flavors and dishes that are the favorite parts of this all day eating affair, beginning with the humble and often barely considered cranberry.

Most of us have a Thanksgiving cranberry memory of that “log.” You know what I’m talking about. The “log” of jellied fruit that still has rings on it from the can it slid out of. In my opinion, except for family nostalgia, there’s no need to suffer with this form of cranberry jelly, especially not in Rhode Island, which is part of the major cranberry producing region stretching from New Jersey to Nova Scotia. Most fresh cranberries grown in RI are sold to the cooperative that produces the aforementioned can. But you can buy RI cranberries. Head to the South Kingstown Winter Farmers Market, which begins on Saturday, November 12, and search out S & P Gardiner Farm’s table. There you’ll find they have local RI cranberries for sale.

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So now you have some local fresh cranberries (or if you really couldn’t find local, I hope you bought some fresh cranberries at your local grocery store), I would advise against eating them unless you really like sour, bitter fruit. Cranberries perfectly fit the definition of the word tart. There are a number of things you can do with them. Easiest of all is making cranberry sauce. You take about 12 ounces or 3 cups of cranberries, a cup of water and a cup of sugar, bring it to a boil and then simmer for 10-15 minutes depending on how soft you like your sauce.

Easy right? So why do people bother with the canned thing that’s processed and looks can-like? I couldn’t tell you. Want to improve upon the basic sauce with barely any more effort? You could mix in any number of the following ingredients depending upon your taste: orange juice or zest, red wine, apple cider, grated ginger, cinnamon (drop in a stick if you want a slightly less strong flavor) or maple syrup. Cranberry sauce is also a dish you can make a day in advance and serve from the refrigerator with no fuss on Thanksgiving Day.

Last year I was looking for a new way to prepare fresh cranberries and thankfully my friend Amy McCoy, author of the Poor Girl Gourmet cookbook and web site, posted a Cranberry-Apple Chutney recipe that I had to try. It was a huge success and I remember Tweeting to Amy the next day that not only did my 20-month-old daughter eat it, but more importantly, my mother-in-law, devout lover of the canned jelly, preferred it over the can. McCoy was kind enough to share her recipe here.

Cranberry-Apple Chutney (makes approximately 5 cups)

Ingredients:

2 cups apple cider

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 (12 ounce) bag fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over for squishy berries and stems, both of which belong in your trash bin

3 medium apples (I used a mix of Macoun and Empire), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch wedges

1 medium (10 to 12 ounce) Vidalia onion or other sweet onion, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup dried cranberries

Procedure:

Pour the cider and maple syrup into a large (at least 4-quart capacity) non-reactive (stainless steel) stockpot, then add the brown sugar and stir it into the liquid to break up its cup measure shape. Throw in the cinnamon stick, then add the cranberries, apple wedges, onion, raisins, and dried cranberries. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until the cranberries have done that bursting thing, rendering the sauce a lovely strawberry-rhubarb jam shade of red, the apples have broken into pieces about one-quarter their original size, and the chutney has thickened to a loose-preserves consistency, approximately 20 minutes from the time the mixture begins to simmer. It will thicken as it cools.

Let the chutney cool slightly, remove the cinnamon stick, then transfer the chutney to a large (at least 6-cup capacity) airtight storage container and refrigerate it until it's time for it to sidle up to the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy. If you make the chutney 2 days ahead of the Thanksgiving Day feast, that gives you until the following Tuesday to use any leftover chutney up.

Photos David Dadekian