Cranberry Sauce

I grew up with cranberry sauce out of a can, and there's not a thing wrong with it. I actually like it quite a lot, especially on turkey sandwiches, the day after a holiday feast. But there are other ways to use cranberries, as well. And we should use cranberrries, really, because they grow here, they're extremely good for you, and it's fun.

One of the lovely features of the Northwest are local fresh cranberries. You can visit some of the region's farms, and the Pacific Coast Cranberry Research Foundation offers a self-guided walking tour you can take, if you're interested in actually seeing how cranberries are grown, irrigated, harvested (in October), and so eventually end up on your plate.

So bring some of those fresh cranberries home. We're going to do something yummy with them.

You can certainly make your own cranberry sauce, simply and quickly, just by using a cup of water, a cup of sugar, and four cups of cranberries. I'd encourage you to experiment, by the way, with a little orange or lemon zest, allspice, grated ginger root, and/or chopped and toasted nuts.

In a saucepan big enough, bring the water and sugar to a boil, then add in the cranberries (washed and picked over, of course) and simmer gently for about ten minutes, until the cranberries look sort of exploded. Stir frequently enough to keep it from sticking to the bottom. Voila, you've got old-fashioned, homemade cranberry sauce. Now you can (and should) experiment with other textures and flavors, added in.

If you're a fan of raw cranberries, you've likely had one of the many fresh cranberry relishes. This, too, is dead easy—and again, there's plenty of room to experiment with added ingredients.

If you've a food-processor to chop ingredients, that will work just fine. When I was a kid, we used a little grinder with a crank handle that clamped to the edge of the table, and my dad would spend an hour or so hunting for the blades, because he couldn't remember where he'd stashed them last year. (The grinder somehow counted as a "tool" not a kitchen implement, so it was Dad's job to oversee the assembly and disassembly, every year. Or maybe it was just that he'd had it last, making deer sausage. It's one of those childhood mysteries best not examined too deeply.)

Basically, I like to take a couple of cups of raw cranberries, a big juicy orange—peel and all, and a couple of apples left over from making pie (core these, but you don't have to peel them) and grind it all up together. Sweeten to taste with sugar or brown sugar (I prefer to leave it fairly tart, so it's important to taste it often while you sweeten the mixture.) If you're feeling daring, experiment with adding a splash of Grand Marnier, or other sweet liqueur, as part of the sweetening process. Again, now is a perfect opportunity to chop and roast walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts to mix into your relish, or to use as garnish. If you like a little extra crunch, you can finely chop some celery to add in.

Cranberries freeze beautifully, so you can stock up when they're in season, and toss a couple of bags in the freezer to use later on.