Spiced Cranberry Sauce & Cranberry Cosmo Cocktail
Fresh cranberries remain one of the few fruits which only appear seasonally in the grocery aisle. Every November when they first arrive, I snap up a bag and vow to expand my repertoire from the season’s mainstay – cranberry sauce.
#1 Cranberry Sauce
I started with a slow cooked cranberry sauce, the addition this year being a half teaspoon of our very own Sweet & Spicy blend (substitute for ginger and allspice in the recipe, or your favorite pumpkin spice.) It is rich and tart, with a hint of festive spice. Being from England, I will be enjoying the cranberry sauce this weekend alongside a roasted goose on our Christmas dining table.
I’ve also just taken delivery of a bag full of sunchokes from my friend Erin who inadvertently colonized her entire community garden plot with these perennial edible tubers. They will make good Latkes and the cranberry sauce will provide the perfect topping with a spoonful of sour cream.
#2 Cranberry Cosmo Cocktail
If you’re entertaining over the holidays then it’s fun to offer a signature cocktail. To make a festive Cosmo, in a shaker combine 2 tbsp of spiced cranberry sauce, 50ml vodka, 25ml triple sec, 1 tablespoon lime juice. Shake and strain into a glass.
The sauce is super simple to throw into your slow cooker and leave to bubble away, allowing the cranberries to pop and combine with the other flavors. I made my sauce 6 weeks ago and stored it in a small, airtight kilner jar. If you have leftovers from Thanksgiving, then this is the perfect time to use it.
- 12 ounces fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- orange zest
- 1/8 tsp each of ground ginger & allspice
- mix all the ingredients in the slow cooker
- cook on HIGH for 2 - 3 hours or LOW for 4- 5 hours and stir after half the cooking time
“At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Thank wish a snow in May’s new fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
-William Shakespeare, Loves Labours Lost
