Sauces in the national cuisine of many nations are used to set off or enhance the taste of a particular dish. This additional ingredient is also capable of hiding culinary flaws made by an inexperienced housewife during cooking. With its original sweet and sour taste, exquisite cranberry sauce can make any meat or poultry dish a delicacy.
By itself, the taste of cranberries is quite sour, but you can soften it by adding sugar or honey. This sweet and sour dressing is very popular in Europe and America. It is served with Camembert cheese fried in bread crumbs, baked beef and pork meat, and the famous turkey that adorns American festive tables on Thanksgiving Day. This sauce goes especially well with fatty meats - lamb and pork, helping to better assimilate the rather heavy dishes that are prepared from them.
It is best to use fresh berries to make the sauce, but you can also make it from frozen cranberries, which you can buy at the store. Before making a sauce from it, pour the berries into a bowl or plate and choose those that have a light shade - these unripe fruits can add unnecessary bitterness to the sauce.
Use enamel cookware to make cranberry sauce to avoid acid-metal contact and to prevent the release of harmful substances.
The finished sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 4 weeks. To do this, it will need to be transferred to a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid.
To prepare the classic version of cranberry sauce, you will need:
- 0.5 kg of cranberries;
- 1 glass of granulated sugar;
- 1 unpeeled orange;
- ¼ tsp grated nutmeg;
- ¼ tsp ground allspice;
- 50 ml of water.
Pour water into a small saucepan or saucepan, add cranberries and sugar. Place on the stove and start simmering, stirring constantly. When the sugar dissolves and begins to boil, add the spices to the saucepan. Continue to cook the mixture, stirring occasionally, for another 7-8 minutes.
The classic version of cranberry sauce goes well with baked goods, pasta, stews and even ice cream.
Scald the orange with the peel with boiling water. Using a sharp knife or vegetable peeler, carefully peel off the top orange layer of the rind skin. Squeeze the juice out of the remaining orange. Chop the zest finely with a knife and add it to the pot in which the cranberries are boiled. Cook, stirring for another 5 minutes, then pour the orange juice into a saucepan, stir, bring the mixture to a boil, and turn off. Pour the contents of the pot into a blender and blend into a puree.
To make the consistency of the sauce more delicate, you can additionally grind it through a metal sieve and remove solid particles.
If you want to make a spicy cranberry sauce that can be served with baked fatty meats, you will need:
- 0.3 kg of cranberries;
- 50 g of water;
- 2 cm fresh ginger root;
- 1/2 tsp coriander seeds;
- 3-4 cloves of garlic;
- 3 tbsp. liquid light honey;
- ground cinnamon on the tip of a knife;
- 2-3 pcs. carnations;
- ground black pepper to taste.
Pour water into a saucepan, boil, add cranberries, peppers, cinnamon and cloves, stirring for 12-15 minutes, until all the berries burst. Remove the cloves and discard them. Peel the ginger root, cut into small pieces. Place the garlic, ginger, coriander seeds, and the contents of the saucepan in a blender chopper. Add honey to the resulting berry puree, mix.
