Cranberry Sauce as Avoidance Mechanism

Thanksgiving is almost here and if you are still left with the ‘good guest’ question of ‘what shall I bring’, here’s the easiest thing yet. Now don’t be daunted if your host demurs, it may take 15 years or so (I’ll tell you about that another time), but you will eventually win the battle over the canned variety of Cranberry (faux) Sauce. I know that there are some amongst us who have a sentimental attachment to opening two sides of a can and listening to the sucking noise that accompanies jelly emergence. Hang in there, eventually the canned stuff will lose its celebrity and your homemade effort will be appreciated for its inherent cranberry-ness. So here we go. As in all things, there are always variations on a theme, but this is easy, basic and always a hit. In the time it took for me to take the ingredients photo, the sauce was done. Voila! Here’s how:

Ingredients you will need:

• A bag of cranberries (usually 12 oz.)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of orange juice (or a combination of water and oj)
• 2 teaspoons of grated orange rind (give or take)

Equipment:

• Colander
• Measuring cups (wet and dry, or not-this not a precise recipe)
• Your best saucepan (heavy is good)
• Something to grate with and some wax paper
• Something to get the juice out of your oranges
• A spoon
• And lastly, an apron. Cranberries stain!

Method:

• Wash your berries and while doing so, pick out and discard any nasty looking ones.
• Wash your oranges and using a grater (over wax paper or one of those flexible mats), grate off some rind from your oranges. Avoid the white pith under the skin, it’s bitter.
• Juice the oranges and measure. If you don’t have a full cup, add water to get a cup’s worth of liquid.
• Put your prepared ingredients and the cup of sugar into the saucepan (in other words put everything together).
• Stir and bring to a boil.
• When just at a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the berries pop (about 10 minutes).

Done! Once the berries have popped you can turn off the heat and let your sauce cool down. It will thicken as it cools. You just made sauce and maybe even a mini act of subversion for the holiday table. This sauce needs to be refrigerated but lasts a long time (that is if there is any left!).

Did I forget the “avoidance mechanism” part? Now that I’m warmed-up, it’s time to tackle that pastry dough! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.