You may be like me and thought your entire life that you did not like cranberries or cranberry sauce. That stuff in the can just seemed like a glob to me and it had zero appeal. I know that some of you love that stuff and I respect that, but it just seemed like really thick jello to and I am not a jello fan either.

Fast forward to adult life and passing age 45 and I discovered cranberries. Yep, the real deal cranberries. Oh now there is a yummy little morsel!

I tried making several different cranberry sauces and although they were better than the canned stuff they were all so sweet. I am a savory taste person on Thanksgiving–no marshmallows on my sweet potatoes, no honey on the carrots and no cranberry sauce that is sweet like jelly. Don’t get me wrong, I love sweets! But I just save my sweet taste buds for pies at dessert!

A few years back I discovered a cranberry chutney recipe. I cannot recall where I got this from; it might have been Good Housekeeping Magazine. I love it and now it has become a tried and true, Thanksgiving and Christmas thing.

The great thing is that you just dump all this stuff in a saucepan, bring to a boil and then simmer slowly for the afternoon. The recipe says 30 minutes, I simmer for 3 – 4 hours on low. It gets a wonderful think consistency and all the cranberries burst open with flavor.

Here’s what you need to fill your saucepan:

1 bag (12 oz) cranberries

1 C Brown Sugar (make your own using 1 cup of sugar and 1 TBL Molasses mixed up in a food processor)

1/2 C dried apricots chopped

1/2 C Golden Raisins (honestly the dark raisins don’t cut it in this recipe)

1/4 C Cider Vinegar (I use Braggs)

2 TBL minced fresh ginger (so much of the goodness comes from this!)

1 small onion finely chopped

1 clementine or small orange peeled and chopped (save the peel if you brine your turkey)

1/2 tsp salt

Into the sauce pan it all goes. Bring to a boil and then simmer, simmer, simmer. Simmer as long or as short as you want; consistency is up to you. I like mine reduced down good.

This is really great stuff. Yummy on Thanksgiving but really splendid on the turkey sandwich I know you’re gonna have for leftovers!

If you are like me and thought you did not like cranberries or would like something less sweet with a little kick, try this! Let me know if you do and what you think.

Happy Unleashing (in the kitchen this week!)

FGU