Two Cranberry Sauces

Two Cranberry Sauces

In celebration of Bernadette Martin, the 'brain mother' of Blue Heron Kitchen

Happy Birthday, Bern!

Cranberry Sauce (spicy)

If you're still looking for a cranberry sauce that's not from 'the bag' or from a can, here are two great recipes. One's spicy and the other's boozy. The boozy one is "Blue Heron Blue Ribbon." (I just invented that one.) These are easy-to-make and great gifts for your host.

Either or both will complement your Thanksgiving feast or any fall or winter repast. Try them with roasted roots, fowl, game or meat. Serve the sauces with soft ripened cheeses! Use as relish or as a condiment on your sandwich. The NY Times reports that cranberries are abundant this year. So grab a couple of bags at your market. I'll get to work on some more recipes.

I'm volunteering for Thanksgiving this year. I hope you're having a wonderful holiday with family, friends .. or you, too, are helping others who have less .. or none.

peace and love.

with a smile and song,
jane

Cranberry Sauce with Jalapeño and Ginger

Adapted from David Tanis by Blue Heron Kitchen

1 c. sugar

2 jalapeños, preferably red, seeded and finely diced

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

½ c. water

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. cayenne

1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger or , if you don’t have fresh, 1 ½ tsp. dried

12 ounces cranberries

Procedure:

Put sugar, jalapeños, lemon juice, salt and cayenne in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Add water, then stir to dissolve sugar, and simmer 2 minutes.

Add ginger and cranberries, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let mixture cook, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have softened and no liquid remains in pan.

Let cool and season to taste. Add more cayenne or jalapeños if desired.

May be stored in fridge up to two weeks.

Hot Stuff!

Cranberry Sauce (boozy)

Cranberry Sauce with Pears, Brandy and Walnuts

Adapted from notlazy.rustic by Blue Heron Kitchen

This may be the best cranberry sauce I've ever tasted. The recipe comes from the great food blog, “Food52”, a portal for foodists and a resource that I turn to when recipes and ingredients are “stale.”  Last year’s cranberry-port gelée is another great recipe and a keeper.

This recipe is chunky and boozy. Serve it at the grown-up table.

Perfect with cheese, mixed into morning-after-porridge or as a side for Turkey, chicken, duck or pork.

Here are Food52’s' Editors' Comments: "In this cranberry sauce, you won't find any of the punishing tartness you get in many -- it's all silk and fragrance. The pears, which are shredded, melt into the sauce. The cranberries soften and soak up the brown sugar and cinnamon. And the brandy smoothes any wrinkles. You add a little brandy in the beginning and some more at the very end, as you stir in toasted walnuts. We've made the sauce with grated apple and it's just as delicious. We've also served it over fresh ricotta -- make sure you have some leftovers so you can try this!"

“Notlazy” suggests fooling around with the amount of brandy. (It’s happily boozy.) I mixed Poire William with some good French brandy. You can change the nuts to pecans, but there’s so much sweetness in this that I think the walnuts lend an excellent balance. In general, we should all be the boss when it comes to nuts and other ingredients.

Cranberry Sauce 

with Pears, Brandy and Walnuts 

Ingredients:

1/3 cup, plus 2-3 tablespoon brandy, divided

water

2 cinnamon sticks, each broken in half

8 black peppercorns

12 ounces fresh cranberries, picked over

¾  c./75 g. packed light brown sugar

2 medium Bartlett pears, ripe but still quite firm, peeled (organic are best!)

½ c. chopped walnuts, toasted, 1 Tbsp. removed for garnish

Procedure:

Pour 1/3 cup brandy into liquid measuring cup; add enough water to reach ½  cup. Set aside.

Place broken cinnamon sticks and peppercorns in a piece of cheesecloth or if you are a loose tea drinker and have them, a large tea bag; and secure with kitchen twine.

In medium saucepan, combine cranberries, brown sugar and cinnamon-pepper bundle.

Using large holes on a box grater, grate pears into saucepan.

Pear perfect.

Stir in brandy-water mixture.

Over medium-high heat, bring cranberry mixture to a boil; reduce heat to medium and cook 10-12 minutes, or until cranberries have burst and the mixture has come together, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and stir in 2 to 3 tablespoons brandy.

Let cool. Remove and discard cinnamon bundle.

Stir in toasted walnuts. Transfer mixture to small serving bowl; sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of walnuts.

(ooh la la .. or.. la la la!)

Honey Cake 2014

Lekach 2014

(Honey Cake)

Adapted from The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook by Blue Heron Kitchen

For Janet

Recently, my dear friend, Janet sent a package of interesting and old books, food-related, that she’d acquired. This recipe comes from one of them. The book, The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook, published in 1952 by The Homemakers Research Group, is browned at the edges with curled pages and black and white photos. The book is wonderful. It is ‘scholarly’, defining the laws of kashruth, with a handy glossary of “special Yiddish terms” like “brith millah”, the ritual circumcision that takes place on the eighth day after birth and “synagogue”. For Jews (and probably for many folks who follow a religion) food accompanies pain and suffering. #eatingdisorder #comfort

Other, more positive terms are in the glossary, such as “arba kosot”, the four cups of wine you drink at every seder, “balabusta”, an efficient housewife, and my fave, “beryah”, a “jewel” of a homemaker.

The Yiddish term “lekach” made it into this little glossary. Mazel Tov!

I like “Golden Blossom” brand honey. If you can’t find it, use a light honey.

I like this recipe because it doesn’t call for that hot coffee or tea ingredient. (However, it’s interesting that at the end of this recipe, the editor adds a “variation” for a more “economical cake”, reducing the eggs from 6 to 4 and adding ½ cup of hot coffee or hot tea, diluting the honey with the hot liquid, a convention in so many honey cake recipes.) In fact, your recipe may call for this technique!

When I see a recipe calling for six eggs, I have a panic attack that I’m going to have to separate them and separately whip the whites. Not this one. You’ll beat whole eggs for about five minutes in an electric mixer.

Old Eastern European recipes called for rye flour (wheat flour “back then” was expensive and rye flour made a toothsome and heavy cake that was baked slowly for hours.) This one calls for pastry or cake flour. Nice.

One reason why honey cake is always on the dry side is because nobody adds the dried fruit and nuts. Add them. They'll keep the cake (relatively) moist (and add flavor.) Get some good quality citron (Italian markets .. try Eataly, Chelsea Market, Arthur Ave. or any good Italian market. Get a schtickle (a little piece) of candied citron .. not the gooey stuff.) It’ll last forever and you’ll have it for the winter months when your cakes and other confections call for dried fruit.

There’s so much bitterness in the world. Just make some cake. Eat some. Share the rest.

peace and love,

jane

Lekach

Ingredients:

3 ½ c. cake or pastry flour, scooped and leveled

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. ground allspice

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cloves

6 eggs, size large, room temperature

1 c. granulated white sugar

1 c. honey (coat liquid measuring cup with oil for an easy pour)

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil (Canola is good)

2 Tbsp. brandy (good quality)

½ c. raisins (organic, if possible)

½ c. chopped nuts (almonds, toasted, cooled, chopped – or walnuts, pecans, your choice.)

¼ c. chopped citron

Procedure:

Mis en place:

Prepare a tube pan with a removable bottom by coating it with oil. Cut out a piece of parchment paper and line the bottom and coat the top of that too. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 300º F.

In a large bowl, measure flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices and whisk together.

Measure out your honey.

In a small bowl, combine dried fruit and nuts and mix together.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs until combined.

Gradually add the sugar and mix for approximately 5 minutes (KA speed #5) with paddle or beater blade.

Add honey and oil and beat until combined.

Add brandy and fruit and nut mixture and mix until combined.

Dump in flour mixture and beat well until just combined.

Transfer batter to prepared tube pan and bake in preheated oven for approximately 1 hour (more or less, depending on your oven), in the center of the oven, until cake is golden and toothpick comes out clean.

Invert pan until cake is cold.

Like all cakes that have strong, aromatic spices, this cake will taste better after a day or two (or three).

After cake is completely cool, wrap well. 

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