Thanksgiving Recipes: Kicked Up Cranberry Dishes Food Families.com

Thanksgiving Recipes: Kicked Up Cranberry Dishes

What do you get when you combine fresh cranberries with persimmons, pecans and oranges? Not your grandma’s old-fashioned cranberry sauce.

If you are looking for jazzed up versions of this Thanksgiving classic, you’ve come to the right place. You can’t have a Turkey Day feast without cranberries, so why not try something new this year? The following recipes pay homage to fresh cranberries in ways that will win over your pickiest holiday eaters.

FRESH CRANBERRY AND PERSIMMON SAUCE

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion (1 medium)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil or cooking oil

1 12-oz. bag fresh cranberries

1 cup cranberry juice

3/4-cup sugar

1/2-teaspoon ground ginger

1 medium persimmon (you can substitute with an apple if needed), cored and cut into 1/4-inch cubes

Rosemary sprig

Directions:

In large saucepan cook onion and garlic in hot oil over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until onions begin to soften. Add cranberries, cranberry juice, sugar, and ginger. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until mixture is just thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in persimmon.

Serve warm or cover and chill up to 48 hours.

Top sauce with rosemary sprig before serving.

CHUNKY CRANBERRY RELISH

Ingredients:

24 oz. fresh cranberries (6 cups)

1 cup cranberry juice

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Directions:

Wash and dry cranberries.

In a pan combine juice, sugar, salt, and cinnamon stick. Bring to simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar; cook one minute. Add the cranberries and cook, stirring constantly, until they begin to pop, 3 to 5 minutes. Add orange zest; cook a few seconds longer. Remove from heat. Cool. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.

FRESH CRANBERRY AND ORANGE RELISH

Ingredients:

4 cups cranberries, washed and sorted

2 large Navel (seedless) oranges

2 cups sugar

Directions:

Wash and dry cranberries.

Peel and section oranges, removing as much of the white membrane as possible.

Roughly chop the orange peels and pulse a few times in a blender or food processor until pieces are fairly small.

Add the cranberries, orange sections and sugar to the blender, and pulse a few more times. Don’t over pulse–mixture should be chunky.

Refrigerate relish for 24 hours before serving.

Crazy for Cranberries