Kick the Can, with a Chutney

As the great isolated thanksgiving feast roars down upon us, I find that myself and my wife will be celebrating alone this year. Whilst I will miss the closeness of family, I WILL NOT miss the abomination that is canned cranberry sauce.

My wife has her recipe, and I have mine. (Of such things, WARS have be declared.) But perhaps a bit of a negotiation will yield two batches of sauce.

Once again, I shall commit the crime of cultural misappropriation, and hijack a millennia old recipe for chutney, and bend it to my will.

This chutney has so many more uses than a simple side for turkey and dressing, it can be used as a condiment on a cheese for charcuterie board, or as a stuffing for a baked brie, even as a spread for that delight of all time, the Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey Sandwich.

From Wikipedia: (Did YOU donate to the project)

Cranberry sauce or cranberry jam is a sauce or relish made out of cranberries, commonly served as a condiment or a side dish with Thanksgiving dinner in North America and Christmas dinner in the United Kingdom and Canada. There are differences in flavor depending on the geography of where the sauce is made: in Europe it is generally slightly sour-tasting, while in North America it is typically more heavily sweetened.

A chutney is a family of condiments or sauces in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys may be realized in such forms as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sauce.

A common variant in Anglo-Indian cuisine uses a tart fruit such as sharp apples, rhubarb or damson pickle made milder by an equal weight of sugar (usually demerara or brown sugar to replace jaggery in some Indian sweet chutneys).

Vinegar was added to the recipe for English-style chutney that traditionally aims to give a long shelf life so that autumn fruit can be preserved for use throughout the year (as are jams, jellies and pickles) or else to be sold as a commercial product. Indian pickles use mustard oil as a pickling agent, but Anglo-Indian style chutney uses malt or cider vinegar which produces a milder product that in western cuisine is often eaten with hard cheese or with cold meats and fowl, typically in cold pub lunches.

Cranberry Chutney

Kick the can, and spice up your life…
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Chill time 2 hours
Course Sauce, Side Dish
Cuisine American, Indian
Servings 8 people
Calories 105 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Bag Fresh Cranberries 12 oz, washed, sorted (One bag)
  • 2 tsp Butter
  • 1 tsp Black Mustard Seeds
  • 1/4 Ea Onion Med, Sweet, Peeled, Diced fine ~1/4 cup
  • 2 ea Thai Peppers Minced, fine, (Jalapeno / Soranno works as well)
  • 3/4 cup Sugar Granulated
  • 1/4 tsp Black Pepper Freshly ground
  • 1/2 tsp Ginger grated
  • 1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp Allspice
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup Water
  • 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar To Taste

Instructions
 

  • In medium saucepan over medium high heat, add butter and foam out
  • Add mustard seeds, they should sizzle, cook for ~10-15 sec
  • Add onions and jalapeno, cook until onions soften and turn translucent
  • Add spices and cook until fragrant
  • Add Cranberries, salt, sugar, water, Stir to combine
  • Advance to high heat, bring to a boil, and thence revert to low
  • Cook until berries pop, and the sauce starts to thicken, ~15 minutes
  • Taste, balance flavor, adjust spice, use vinegar to taste …
  • Cool, place in non-reactive container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours

Notes

This is a fairly spicy chutney, and is a recreation of a recipe I developed long ago, and lost in one of the many moves around the universe 
Note, One can take a brie, split, slater with this reassemble, wrap in puff pastry and bake for a show stopping appetizer.  This does pair quite well with most soft cheeses, and would be a decent addition to a cheese or charcuterie board.
It also can be used as a spread for a meat and cheese sandwich, I’d go with a chicken, turkey, or ham.  It does not play that well with beef ..  But maybe, a beef stir fry, with a touch of this in the sauce mix, but that is another experiment / post.  
As always whence dealing with peppers, taste them, one pepper can be very mild, the next pepper can remove your tonsils chemically..  And as always, don protective gear, (latex gloves, I am SURE you have some now.)

Nutrition

Calories: 105kcalCarbohydrates: 24gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 3mgSodium: 84mgPotassium: 36mgFiber: 2gSugar: 20gVitamin A: 57IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 3mgIron: 1mg
Keyword Chutney, Cranberry, Holidays, Thanksgiving
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

  Filed under: American, Cold, Cultural-Misappropriation, Follow On, Indian, Ingredient, Pub Food, Quick, Sauce, Vegetarian

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