Cranberry Orange Sauce

I, er, mixed up my recipe provenances when I said my stepgrandmother was the source for this sauce. The recipe actually comes from a thinly lined sheet of paper in my stepmother's recipe clippings, and she, in turn, copied it out of a magazine in an airplane several years ago.

It might be my ideal cranberry sauce: it's textured and tasty, with spicy notes and chunky nuts and the gloriously astringent flavor of cranberries. Is anyone else Thanksgiving-ed out? I'm keeping this short and sweet.

In other news, the Accidental Hedonist is accepting nominations for the 2005 Food Blog Awards. If you're so inclined, head over there and leave your nomination in the comments section for each category. As for who might deserve your nod, dear reader, well, that is up to you.

Cranberry Orange Sauce
Yields: 2 1/4 cups

1 bag cranberries (12 oz)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup orange liqueur (Cointreau or Grand Marnier, for example)
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp grated orange rind
1/2 cup toasted, chopped pecans

1. Combine first seven ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium heat, simmer, stirring frequently, until cranberries have popped and the mixture has thickened slightly - around 10 minutes. Set aside and cool slightly. Stir in orange zest and pecans.

Comments

[joan]

we nominated you for best blog, writing. Hugs

[philip]

Horseradish Sauce Recipe:
Ingredients: sour cream, grated onion, prepared horseradish, salt... view the recipe
http://www.horseradish-sauce-recipe.w8w.pl

[Mary]

Hi, Luisa,

Yesterday I made some toaster cake corn muffins - which I iced with powdered sugar and then added a dollop of raspberry preserves. After I found this sauce on your site, I think I will have to try this in place of the raspberry jam...especially come fall. For my toaster cake recipe, go to:

http://marysnest.typepad.com/marys_nest/2008/08/remembering-tho.html

Thanks so much for all the great food and entertaining tips.

All the best,

Mary

[kellypea]

We tried this last weekend and loved it. The cointreau and spice add wonderful flavors to the often too tart cranberries. Nice!

[Leah]

luisa, this sauce is stunningly good! it was hands-down the star of our thanksgiving dinner last week and so easy to make. i omitted the nuts and used triple sec because i didn't have cointreau and it was still so good. thanks.

[Sue J.]

Made this strictly according to the recipe, and it is entirely too tart. Fortunately we made it ahead and tasted it after it had time to chill. Comparing this recipe to other similar ones, we find that this recipe uses far less sugar than most others. So, just saying, you might want to taste this ahead of time and adjust the sugar to taste. We had to more than double the sugar called for.

[Luisa]

Sue - yes, this has a lot less sugar than many cranberry sauces. But that's why I like it - it stands up really well to all that heavy Thanksgiving food, especially with all those delicious spices and flavorings.