The Cottage Smallholder

I finally found cranberries in the Cambridge Sainsbury’s store on Friday. I wanted to whoop with joy and run around the store waving them over my head. Instead I quickly grabbed two packs and quietly popped them into my basket. I’ve been looking for cranberries for weeks and was beginning to worry that we wouldn’t have homemade cranberry sauce with our Christmas goose this year.

We have a great cranberry sauce recipe here. Reading the comments on that article prompted me to give our sauce a new twist this year. Why not substitute sloe vodka for port and add some Christmassy spice?

I took the jars of mixed spice and allspice from the larder and let my nose choose. The Nose chose the allspice.

Danny’s tasting notes read:
“The sauce is very good, quite tart and fresh – the perfect foil for our goose. Nose chose well. Looking at the ingredients should keep well in the fridge for a couple of months.”

I love cranberry sauce with Stilton and lavished on a naughty Brie de Meaux sandwich it lightens the dullest February sky.

Like our Sloe and Bramley jelly, a tablespoon of this added to a game casserole or rich terrine will give an extra satisfying depth.

Cranberry and clementine sauce recipe

Ingredients:

• 400g of fresh cranberries
• 5 clementines (juice and zest). You could use a couple of oranges at a push.
• 160g white granulated sugar
• half a teaspoonful of allspice
• 60ml of sloe vodka (to taste). You could use sloe gin or a splash of brandy or even a half teaspoon of elderflower cordial. This ingredient is just to add depth.

Method:

1. Wash the cranberries and discard any iffy fruit.
2. Put the cranberries in a saucepan.
3. Wash the clementines and remove the zest (just a little off each fruit to give you about half a teaspoonful from each one). Squeeze the juice and add the zest, pulp and juice to the cranberries.
4. Add the sugar and allspice and stir well.
5. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Taste the sauce at this stage, if you find the sauce is too tart for your taste, add a little more sugar.
6. Pop on the lid and simmer for 15-20 minutes until all the cranberries are soft and splitting. Some of them will cook more quickly than others. Stir the sauce gently every five minutes or so. When the sauce is ready, remove from the heat and stir in the sloe vodka.
7. Pot in warm sterilised jars with plastic lined screw top lids. Store in the fridge. How do I sterilise jars? See tricks and tips below.
   

Tricks and tips:

How do I sterilise jars?

Just before making the sauce, quickly wash and rinse the jars and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 160 c (140 c fan-assisted). When the oven has reached the right temperature turn off the heat and open the door. The bottles will stay hot for quite a while, so use oven gloves when removing them from the oven. Sterilise the lids by boiling these for a few minutes in water.