Poultry Love: A Love Story Between Cranberries and Turkey.

Okay, I played around with some special effects for this picture, but cranberry chutney without refined sugar and citrus does seem kind of magical, no?

Turkey dinner is not turkey dinner without cranberry sauce.  The three basic ingredients in most cranberry sauces are cranberries, sugar and orange (juice, maybe even rind/peel): a nightmare for the liver diet I'm on (no citrus or sugar allowed) and bad for an orange allergy (hello, itching!).  But what is turkey dinner without cranberry?  So when a friend had a bunch of us over for turkey dinner I remembered a cranberry chutney recipe I happened upon and offered to make it for this dinner. I saw the potential in this chutney and even though I made alterations for my diet, I wasn't disappointed with the result, and I think the other cranberry lovers at the dinner weren't either. 

Here's what I did:

Cranberry Chutney

cheesecloth
kitchen twine
6 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
4 cups cranberries (as this was after Thanksgiving, fresh cranberries were unavailable so I used frozen)
1 cup coconut sugar (just enough to balance the tartness of the cranberries, not enough to notice a taste difference from white sugar)
1 1/4 cups water
1 tsp salt
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced
2 firm Bosc or Anjou pears, peeled, cored, and diced
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger (is it a surprise that I used Hawai'ian ginger?)

With a piece of cheesecloth and twine I first make a bag and place my cloves and cinnamon sticks in.  This way I do not have to dig them all out later (granted there was one stray clove that my friend found, but the majority came out in the little baggie with no problem at all). 

In a large saucepan, combine, the cranberries, coconut sugar, baggie, water and salt.  Bring to a boil on medium heat.  Cook for about 10 minutes until the cranberries start to pop open.

Reduce heat and simmer on low, adding apple, pear, onion and ginger.  Cook for another 10-15 minutes (although admittedly I may have let it sit a little longer, I do get distracted very easily, but at least nothing boiled over!!).  Remove from heat, remove the baggie of cinnamon sticks and cloves, and let cool to room temperature before placing in a jar (or jars, this recipe yields enough to fill a 0.5L and a 1L glass jar).  Refrigerate and enjoy the turkey lovin'.

The prep work is quite easy and the reward for your time is unbeatable!  Making this again for a family dinner in another week.  MMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......