Category: Salads and Stuff

Jerri’s Cranberry Sauce and Relish

For the past twenty years or so, Jerri and I have been buying ten pounds of fresh cranberries each fall at marshes near Stone Lake. Wisconsin. Cranberries freeze well, so we measure three cups into quart freezer bags and in half an hour have a year’s supply of the luscious fruit. Before that we used to buy cranberries at the supermarket for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, but this way we save some money, see some beautiful country and enjoy visiting with the people who sort, clean and sell the berries.

If you live in western or northern Wisconsin you might want to set aside a weekend next fall to attend one of the cranberry festivals celebrating the official state fruit and most important fruit crop in Wisconsin. The two nearest festivals that we have been to are at Stone Lake and Warrens. Both feature a weekend of activities which include tours of local marshes where you can buy fresh berries.

In the mid 1990’s, Wisconsin became the largest cranberry producer in the United States. Last year, Wisconsin cranberry growers sold 483 million pounds of the tart fruit, 60 percent of the total crop in the United States. Massachusetts, which once led the nation in cranberry production, was the second largest producer with 212.3 million pounds.

People like cranberries. Over 94 percent of Thanksgiving dinners include cranberry sauce, most in the form of jellied cranberry sauce sold in cans. Only five percent of cranberries are sold as fresh fruit, but once you taste your own cranberry sauce, my guess is that you will be making it again.

Canned cranberry sauce is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which is cheaper than sugar because of farm subsidies. However, we think that sugar gives a better flavor, and I hope that you use it to make your own cranberry sauce this year.

Making cranberry sauce is easy. It takes less than fifteen minutes plus of course the time for the sauce to cool. Here is Jerri’s recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water

PROCEDURE:

Bring the sugar and water to a boil for about five minutes in a two quart saucepan. Add the berries and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the sauce until most of the cranberries have burst, stirring occasionally.

Remove the pan from the heat. Stir the sauce for a half minute or so and allow the sauce to cool. Transfer it to a serving dish or storage container and refrigerate before serving.

NOTES: Buying cranberries in bulk and freezing them in three cup packages makes it easy to enjoy cranberries in all seasons. Here are four good recipes.

First, here is one for an uncooked cranberry orange relish that Jerri makes at least a couple of times a year. It’s great with roast pork, lamb, turkey or chicken. Like her cranberry sauce recipe, this one also has just three ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 orange
1 1/2 cups sugar

PROCEDURE:

Grind or chop the cranberries fairly fine. If we had a food processor, we would use that. Jerri chops the berries in smaller batches in the blender and chops the few by hand that keep bouncing around in the blender jar.

Wash and dry the orange and remove the zest with a zester or the smallest holes on a kitchen grater. Peel the orange, chop the sections into small pieces and discard any seeds with the rind. Stir the berries, zest, chopped orange and sugar together in a bowl. Put the relish in a storage container, cover and refrigerate for at least a day.

Delicious!

Here are three more recipes that are well worth your while.

Cranberry Apple Pie

Cranberry Crumb Coffee Cake

Cranberry Raisin Pie

Meche’s Salsa Fresca

Some time ago, with Meche’s permission, I shared her recipe for guacamole on “Courage in the Kitchen.” Since fresh vegetables are still available at the local Farmers Markets, it’s not too late to make a batch of Meche’s Salsa Fresca. Salsa Fresca literally means “fresh sauce.” It is also called Pico de Gallo, which translates as “rooster’s beak,” heaven knows why. I prefer to call it salsa fresca.

Unlike the salsas you buy in jars at the supermarket, salsa fresca is made with fresh uncooked vegetables and must be stored in the refrigerator, It’s a wonderfully refreshing dip with tortilla chips, a flavorful sauce over scrambled eggs, and goes great with tacos, enchiladas and burritos.

And if you are counting carbs or watching calories, you would be hard pressed to find a better food to complement a low carb low calorie meal.

Meche made clear that her recipe is just a guide. Feel free to change the proportion of ingredients and even add some other ingredients such as radishes, cucumbers or even salad shrimp. Meche even said that the avocado was optional, but she seems to include one most of the time, and I like avocados. Start with tomatoes, onion, peppers and lime juice and go on from there.

4 medium tomatoes (about 3 inches in diameter)
1 small onion (1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter)
2 to 3 Jalapeño peppers or Serrano chiles
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 large clove garlic
2 T fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 avocado

Wash all the vegetables thoroughly. Remove the stem scar and cut the tomatoes in half. Remove the seeds and pulp and chop the tomatoes into half inch pieces. Peel and finely chop the onion.

Remove the stems, seeds and white membrane from the peppers and chop them into a quarter inch dice. Remove the coarse stems from the cilantro and chop the leaves finely. Peel and mince the garlic.

Cut a firm, barely ripe avocado in half, remove the seed and scoop the flesh from the rind with a spoon. Chop the halves into a coarse dice.

Stir the tomatoes, onion, peppers, cilantro and garlic together in a medium bowl. Juice a lime and stir two tablespoons of the fresh juice into the vegetables along with the salt.

Taste and add salt or more juice if necessary.

NOTES: For a milder salsa, substitute part of a green bell pepper for one or two of the jalapeño peppers. For a spicier salsa, use Serrano peppers or add a dash of hot sauce. If you like garlic, add an extra clove.

This recipe works best with an avocado that is very firm. If it feels just slightly soft when you press on the rind, it is right for salsa. If your avocados have gotten too soft, do not despair. Here’s a link to the recipe for Meche’s Guacamole