Cranberry Sauce

The smell of Christmas

A Christmas eve ritual for me is making the cranberry sauce ready for the next day's Christmas dinner. I always use fresh cranberries for this and a good glug of port. I also add star anise to the pot as it works well with some of the oriental food dishes we serve at our Christmas dinne.

Within minutes of starting to cook the cranberry sauce my house is filled with the smell of Christmas, a beautiful fragrance of orange and spice!

For my cranberry sauce I use:

200g fresh cranberries
75g sugar
70ml port
Zest of 1 orange + squeeze of orange juice
A stick of cinnamon
3 tsp mixed spice
2 star anise

The cranberries, port, squeeze of orange, star anise, cinnamon go into the pan first, then I add the orange zest and I cook the cranberries for about 5 minutes until they start popping.

I then add the mixed spice and sugar, and simmer the sauce for a further 10 minutes or until all the berries have softened. I then taste the sauce and add more sugar if needed.

Finally I put the sauce into a dish to cool, and then refrigerate. Yummy sauce ready for Christmas day!

And a bit of art while I'm waiting to eat that cranberry sauce!

'Cranberry Sauce' -2017, by Ophelia Fu

Collage and water-based paints on paper.

Have a great day and Steem on!