Recipe courtesy of Jon Hull
Sure, you could buy a can of cranberry sauce at the grocery store, but who really wants a disc of dark red jelly sliding around their plate?  Wouldn’t you rather have a sweet, gooey, spoonful of fresh cranberry ‘love?’  This is as simple a relish as you can get, and about as easy as opening a can.  Fresh cranberries can be found in the produce section of most every grocery store this time of year, but don’t wait till the day before Thanksgiving – they’ll be gone.  If you have children in the house you’re trying to get interested in cooking, it’s an easy recipe to help them learn on.  Just watch out for the ‘popping’ berries.  We’ve sometimes added roasted, slivered, almonds to add some crunch, but I’ve omitted them from this recipe.  It serves about 12, but I usually like to double it so I’ll
have plenty for leftovers.

Ingredients:
1 pound fresh cranberries (washed and picked over to remove any ‘old brown’ berries)
2 cups sugar
½ cup water
½ cup orange juice (fresh squeezed is best, and pretty easy since it’s only ½ cup)
2 teaspoons of grated orange rind (see, aren’t you glad you squeezed those fresh oranges?)

Directions:
Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook until the cranberries pop open, about 10-12 minutes. (If you’ve got kids helping in the kitchen, use a ‘splatter screen’ to keep the popping berries from hitting anyone.)  Skim the foam from the surface and cool. 
This can be made a day or two in advance and refrigerated.  Bring the relish to room temperature and serve it with a smile.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 7:37 pm and is filed under Afternoon Show Archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.