This week when I saw a bag of cranberries at a reasonable price, I grabbed them. Have you ever seen cranberries? They're pretty cute little red balls. They look pretty tasty and I enjoy dried cranberries when they top a fancy salad, so I thought the fresh ones had to be pretty good.
Boy, was I wrong. These little guys pack an incredible punch. They are pucker yo' face tart. The kind of taste that takes you about 30 seconds to physically to recover from. I tried a bunch of them, thinking at first that I was just eating ones that were not good/ripe or whatever. But, no, they all tasted like that. Now that I'm thinking of it, I should've videoed it for you. It would probably have been pretty funny to watch.
So then I was thinking, "Well, great, now I'm stuck with a whole bag of these painful-to-eat little guys" when I noticed a recipe for cranberry sauce right on the bag. It was basically water, sugar and cranberries, all of which I had in my cupboards, plus I figured adding sugar to these berries was the only way they'd ever be edible.
Now, you'll have to forgive me, but I'm not very familiar with cranberry sauce. My mom doesn't make it for Thanksgiving. So I got this liquid red stuff and then I wasn't sure what to do with it. It wasn't thick like jello, but liquid. Was I supposed to eat it like soup? I felt like it should be put on top of something, like maybe ice cream, but I don't keep ice cream in the house any more. So I put it over Cool Whip, and I'll tell you what, it was pretty tasty! No longer tart and not too sweet, but just right. However, I would appreciate it if someone could tell me how you're actually supposed to eat it. Let me know - or if you have any suggestions on how I should cook the other half of the bag.
Cranberries! I LOVE cranberries! I seriously eat some cranberry product every day -- they go with every meal -- and snacks too!
ReplyDeleteAnd they even make great holiday decorations!
SO MUCH WONDERFULNESS IN A LITTLE RED BERRY!
You could try making your own cranberry juice? It's supposed to be really good for you and full of antioxidants. But, I think it loses some of the antioxidants when you dry them.
ReplyDeleteOr, you could do a cranberry chutney (like jam...but tangy), cranberry bread/muffin, cranberry relish or scones. Any of these recipes are available at allrecipes.com.
Bryan, what cranberry product to you eat daily? Juice? Do you eat them straight/fresh? My granny wrote me about her cranberry sauce and I'm thinking I just didn't let it cook long enough. She said to let it cook until thick.
ReplyDeletethis recipe has been a staple on our thanksgiving table for many years now: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/foodnation-with-bobby-flay/cranberry-sauce-recipe/index.html
ReplyDeleteand this recipe serves to take care of the leftover cranberries and pumpkin (i make my own puree from fresh pumpkins, but canned is ok too!!). freezer friendly!
http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/PumpkinCranberryBread.html
Cranberry juice is great - but there's also cranberry cereal, cranberry muffins, dried cranberries (aka "craisins") you can eat in salads (I like them with blue cheese) as a trail mix or cook with, and cranberry "sauce".
ReplyDeleteYour granny is right about the thickness -- I'd call it cranberry jelly. Some people make really fancy cranberry sauces but just ordinary cranberry jelly is a great year-round food, only more versatile than say, grape jelly, since the tartness balances the sweetness.
I don't eat them fresh. My favorite use for fresh cranberries is to make cranberry/popcorn chains for holiday decorations.
I'll add that cranberries are a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin K, manganese, and have powerful antibacterial properties -- they're too good to only eat once a year!
I've used them as a basis for a sauce, but you have to let it cook down and get all thick. A particularly good combo is the cranberries cooked down with brown sugar, a little cinnamon and/or nutmeg. Can't go wrong there!
ReplyDelete