Thanksgiving is once again upon us. As usual, I kick off my feast preparation with a batch of cranberry sauce. Okay...not quite. I already got a head start by turning my pie pumpkins into pumpkin puree. This year I'm combining two previous favourites (this and this) into one awesome creation. Behold the Spiced Port Apple Cranberry Sauce! Be sure to use cooking apples that are a bit on the tart side and hold their shape when cooked. Northern Spy is my favourite but other varieties such as golden delicious, granny smith, honeycrisp would work too. You want apple dices in the sauce, not applesauce!
You can make this up to four days in advance. It improves after a couple of days as the flavours have time to meld.
Spiced Port Apple Cranberry Sauce
yields 3 1/2 cups
Ingredients
- 1 inch piece of ginger root, peeled
- 1 orange
- 125mL or 1/2 cup ruby port
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 200g or 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Northern Spy apple, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
- 340g or 12oz fresh or frozen cranberries
Method
- Grate ginger root into saucepan.
- Zest orange into saucepan.
- Over a measuring cup, juice the orange. Add the port wine and top with enough water to have a total of 250mL or 1 cup of liquid.
- Add all liquid into saucepan along with cinnamon, cardamom, and sugar. Bring to boil.
- Add diced apples and simmer at medium heat until the apples are almost tender.
- Add cranberries and simmer for approx. 10 minutes until most of the berries pop and sauce thickens.
- Store in covered container and chill until ready to use.
