I’m far from being a minimalist, but sometimes less is oh so much more.
I find that a lot in cooking. Good ingredients can get absolutely buried under a lot of complicated spices and preparation methods, whereas if you have good fresh ingredients and simple but solid prep, your food will sing.
Take cranberry sauce, for instance.
I’ve come across so many recipes where they’ll have you adding chopped pecans and orange zest and raisins and cloves and cinnamon and…so much and.
So much and that by the time you’re done, you’re wondering what this red jelly in a bowl really is. And at that point, you might as well just buy the stuff in a can.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of cans in my pantry. Just not ones of canned cranberry sauce. Not when the real stuff is so delicious and so easy to make.
Because you can make a delicious sauce with only four simple ingredients, and it will take you less than 10 minutes. Fresh cranberries. Orange juice. Water. Sugar. Done. This almost doesn’t even need a recipe.
Simple + Sweet Cranberry Sauce
Makes about 2 1/2 cups.
What You’ll Need:
- 3 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed {1 bag}
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup water, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
How to Make It:
1. In a large skillet over medium heat, whisk together the sugar, orange juice, and water until the sugar has dissolved into the water and the mixture starts to boil.
2. Add the cranberries, and let come to a boil again. Then reduce the heat to medium. Let the cranberries cook for about 10 more minutes or until most of them have burst.
3. Let cool to room temperature. Then serve immediately or jar and refrigerate up to 1 week.
Scott was skeptical the first time I told him not to buy cranberries in a jar but to bring me a bag full of fresh cranberries for our Thanksgiving dinner. But ever since I put this on the table, he’s been a believer.
How about you guys? Where do you stand on the canned vs. fresh cranberry debate?
