Cranberry Sauce/Preserves

Welcome back!

Today, we have a key Thanksgiving dish: Cranberry Sauce! Cranberries really are interesting; they aren't the most appetizing when they're raw, so almost all cranberries harvested go towards the production of cranberry juice. Then, the only time they're actually eaten is in dried cranberries or in cranberry sauce, which is restricted to Thanksgiving and Christmas times. That makes it seem like it's not that good, but we actually enjoy the nice, tart flavor.

Cranberry Sauce/Preserves

Ingredients:

12 ounces cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup orange juice
A pinch of salt

For preserves, you don't need water or orange juice.

Directions:

In a pot, add in the water, orange juice, sugar, and salt. Heat this and stir so the sugar and salt is evenly dissolved. Skip this step for the preserves since there's no water/orange juice. Just combine the sugar and salt with the cranberries.
Add in the cranberries and mix.
Cook this until the cranberries have all "popped" and the mixture is thickened, stirring occasionally. This may take about 10 to 15 minutes. If you're making preserves, be careful so it doesn't burn as there's not a lot of natural water content in the cranberries.
Transfer into sterile jars for storage.

The sauce is pretty liquidy, which is great for topping meats like turkey. However, if you want to make a cranberry jam for something like pastries, then you probably don't want to use that because it'll be rather wet, so we added notes if you wanted to make the drier cranberry preserves.

Also, a note for the amount of sugar: typically, it's about 40% - 50% (if you like it sweeter) of the amount of cranberries used, which is what we did.

-Chefpo

Comments

Fig Crème Fraîche Cake

Welcome back! Today, we have a cake featuring an interesting fruit: the fig! Figs are typically eaten dried or in some processed form because they don't stay fresh for long, so making this dish out of fresh figs was quite nice. Once completed, the fig flavor blends in very well with the rest of the cake and creates a dessert that is flavorful but not overly rich. Fig Crème Fraîche Cake Makes a 9" cake Ingredients: 1/2 pound figs, quartered (if you have big figs, maybe 6-8 slices) 120 grams cake flour 50 grams almond flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 50 grams sugar 60 grams honey 120 grams crème fraîche 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier 1/2 cup melted butter Directions: In a bowl, sift in the dry ingredients (cake flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt). Mix this together. In another bowl, put in the sugar, honey, and crème fraîche, and mix them together. One add a time, add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Add in the vanilla ...

Brownie Cheesecake

Welcome back to Chez Chefpo! Today, we have a delicious treat that combines two wonderful desserts into one! If you like brownies and cheesecake, you're going to like this too, as the two flavors really balance and complement each other. It also goes well with some fresh fruit and is a good final course of a meal. (In fact, you got a sneak peek at it in our Pasta Salad recipe!) Brownie Cheesecake Makes a 9" round pan Ingredients: Brownie: 6 ounces dark chocolate 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter 2 tablespoons brown sugar 6 tablespoons sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 75 grams cake flour 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 1 teaspoon espresso powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Chocolate chips (optional) Cheesecake: 8 ounces ricotta cheese 8 ounces cream cheese 4 ounces plain greek yogurt 2 eggs 50 grams sugar 1/4 cups dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, blueberries) soaked in rum/brandy/Grand Marnier Lemon zest (optional) In place of the ricotta cheese, you could use another 8 ounces of c...

Pearl Meatballs

Welcome back! Today, we have a unique recipe that comes from Central China: Pearl Meatballs! The name is quite interesting but makes sense: they're meatballs, but the translucence of the sticky rice that coats the meatball mirrors the luster of a pearl. It's often served on special occasions, like Lunar New Year, where everyone gathers for a feast and can enjoy this delicious dish. Plus, it's not even that difficult to make! Pearl Meatballs Makes about 30 meatballs Ingredients: For the meatballs: 1/2 pound ground pork 1/4 pound shrimp 80 grams (about 1/2 can) water chestnuts, finely chopped 2 tablespoons green onion, finely chopped 1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon rice wine 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1/4 teaspoon white pepper 1/2 egg white For the rice: 1 cup glutinous (sticky) rice Directions: Rinse the glutinous rice and soak in water for 2 hours. In a bowl, place all the ingredients for the meatballs and mix until even. The mixture...

Search This Blog