Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Louise's Cookbook Party Game


At Months of Edible Celebrations Louise is having a fun month, challenging her readers to post a recipe in honor of one of the special foods of the month. Among the commemorations she lists for October is Cranberry Month. Great idea -- I hope cranberries start to show up in the markets soon.

I love cranberries. I substitute either dried or fresh for walnuts in chocolate chip cookies or even in brownies (shown above). I have made cranberry cornmeal cake, cranberry bread, and above all, cranberry chutney. I make it early so it will be aged enough for Thanksgiving dinner, so my celebration has to be deferred -- later, I make ordinary cranberry sauce for those who like it more traditional.

Louise requested that we specify what event we made our recipe for. She also asked where I got the recipe: good question. I don't remember, I've been making it for years. I hope these details don't disqualify me from her game!

Here's the recipe -- which I've posted before.



Cranberry Chutney
Use a total of 2 packages of cranberries -- 6 cups
Combine the following in a large pan and boil until sugar dissolves:
1/2 cup cider vinegar        2 and 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 tsp. curry powder 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves 1/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1 and 1/2 cups water
Add and simmer 10 minutes:
1 apple, peeled, cored, chopped
2 lemons and 2 oranges, prepared as follows
Use the orange and lemon rind and the fruit -- pare rind with a vegetable peeler and chop or grate it. Discard the pith. Section and chop the fruit.

Add and boil 40 minutes:
1/2 cup golden raisins       1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
3 cups cranberries
Add 3 cups more, that is the rest of the cranberries. I fool around with this recipe a lot. Sometimes I just put everything together and cook until it looks thick and done. Sometimes I use candied ginger.

Store in jars in refrigerator. Age this chutney about a week before using. It keeps for several months in the refrigerator. It's good as a side dish for chicken, turkey, or duck, or as a filling for halves of acorn squash, or as a relish on a cheddar cheese sandwich -- among other uses.


5 comments:

~~louise~~ said...

I love this recipe so much Mae, I just had to tweet it! (yes, I've joined the world of tweeting, lol...

I wouldn't dream of disqualifying YOU!

Thank you so much for joining the Cookbook Party!

P.S. You tweet?

Mae Travels said...

I am too wordy to tweet. But thanks for tweeting my recipe!

Helene Dsouza said...

ohh this looks like a deliciouse little treat. =0
I d like to try it out.

Mae Travels said...

Thanks, Helene. Your blog looks very inviting too -- I have recently been experimenting with some Indian dishes.

Trisha Faye said...

Ahhh Mae... You're the one with the wonderful cranberry recipes!! The cranberry brownie really caught my eye!! (combines two of my favorite foods!)
Love your blog!
Trisha Faye