The Fresh Cranberry Saga
 
Once Upon A Time, the day after Thanksgiving to be precise, I woke up obsessing about the fact that I’d bought 3 pounds of fresh cranberries and we’d used only a cup for the Thanksgiving dinner the day before. An internet search turned up a Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake that looked very interesting but still only used 2 cups of cranberries and called for white chocolate chips which we had none of. When my youngest came into the kitchen, I asked if he had ever done anything with fresh cranberries. “I made cranberry juice that was pretty good.” Juice is not something I usually think of to make. Maybe lemonade or orange juice. I’ve never like cranberry juice. He found the recipe and we were able to use 2 pounds making 2 quarts of juice and still had the 2 cups for the coffee cake. Later, for the coffee cake but it is a winner. The juice from the fresh cranberries is beautiful and way better than any thing I’ve ever had out of a store bought bottle. I really love this stuff. I guess it will become apparent that I seldom follow a recipe slavishly and this was no exception. The recipe called for a lemon, we had an orange. The recipe said not to push on the pulp, I gave the pulp a gentle nudge but not too much. The recipe called for cheese cloth to line a sieve, I didn’t have any that day.  Juice is a very tricky food to photograph. My father, who will be 90 this summer, has been a strong advocate of drinking cranberry juice for urinary health for decades now. It does seem to have many health benefits. Fresh Cranberry Juice ° 1 lb. cranberries, washed & drained ° 1 quart plus 1 c water ° 1/8 tsp salt ° cheese cloth ° 1/2 c sugar Combine cranberries, water, salt and orange slices in a heavy nonreactive saucepan or dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. Cover loosely and simmer 10 minutes until all cranberries have burst. Line a sieve with cheesecloth. Pour cranberry mixture through lined sieve. Do not press on fruit. Pour juice back into same pan. Stir in sugar and boil about 3 minutes. Add more sugar if desired. Cool juice before serving. If you want the juice to be totally clear, I suggest you follow the recipe, line the sieve with cheese cloth and do not press on the fruit pulp. I enjoy the little extra thickness and the touch of pulp. This was first posted before my hard drive crash on Thursday, January 26, 2006. Since I haven’t gotten my previous post back up since my hard drive crash, with my kitchen out of commission I thought it was a good time to get it done. Sort of when life give you lemons, make lemonade. Or as Angelika says, adapting life.http://www.oregoncranberry.net/growing_cranberry.htmhttp://www.cranberryinstitute.org/healthresearch.htmhttp://theflyingapple.typepad.com/the_flying_apple/2006/05/adapting_life_c.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2
Once Upon A Time In My Kitchen...
Thursday, January 26, 2006
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