Cranberry Sauce

Each Thanksgiving I make cranberry sauce. Like so many I wonder why I don't make it more often. I've known some hard sour berries in my life; a few are worth inviting to a holiday party with their other friends: coconut cream, dark brown sugar, butter, lime, the orange juices and their zest, and the apples. None of these would be getting along without music. I invited the Winter Festivity band: cinnamon girl, coriander and the clove man, the allspices and old Miss Nutmeg. The Master of Ceremonies was was Brandy. Coconut cream snuck her underage coconut flakes in for some fun, and I pretended not to notice.

They had a party. The hard sour balls loosened up and infused everyone with season's greetings few expect of them. This is the reason we should make an effort to stay on speaking terms with the human variety of sour berries - they do add something special the Holidays. But don't try living with them on a day to day basis.

In this version, I left out the apples, but added coconut flakes. I wanted a crunchier texture, a scooch more vanilla, because it wasn't going with turkey. Otherwise I use a cup of apples.

Ingredients:
12 oz (1 bag) cranberries, washed
1/3 cup dried sweetened cranberries
Smidgen of water
1 medium oranged peeled and diced
3/4 cup unsweetened fine coconut flakes
Zest of 2 medium oranges
3 whole cloves
6 allspice balls
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cardamom powder
2 caps vanilla (captops)
1 tb lime juice
1 teaspoon lemon
Scooch of cayenne
Scooch of salt
1/2 stick butter
As much coconut cream
1/2 cup brandy
2 cones of jaggery

Method:
Place saucepan on a cold stove burner, mix everything except the jaggery (unrefined molasses sugar) together. Bring heat up to medium and just before it bubbles, turn to low. After one hour of cooking, add the jaggery.

Keep mixing throughout. Cook on low heat for two plus hours total. It will be a milky pink, and have this awesome sour sweet taste. It will be shot through with a vanilla cream taste.

Guess what, this works well with Tilapia on a bed of chard.


Taste Values:
Level 1: Sour Sweet Astringent Pungent
Level 2: Oily Creamy Nutty
Level 3: Earth-Fire primary

[Interpretation of Taste Values from the XYZ Tastewheel (c) 2006 All rights reserved]


Health Values:
Depends on your personal constitution, season, geographical location, and current state of body, spirit and and mind!