Candied Cranberries

Long ago, we bought a house and the agent sent us a recipe for candied cranberries. It looked delicious, so I promptly tried it and have never bought canned ones since. It is simply amazing, and I've shared the recipe with many over the years and several friends have asked me to put it on my blog, so here it is (finally)! Maybe you all can start a new tradition just like I did. I make it every year, and since I learned to can, I make enough to last for the whole year. Last year, I had one jar left over from the year before, and everyone agreed that it's even better after aging a year. I also tried a new trick, adding some baking soda to one batch and reducing the sugar by half, and we liked those even better than the regular ones! The flavors were much bolder, the orange and ginger notes came out beautifully (my Dad threatened to steal the whole batch he liked it so much) so this year I'm planning on experimenting some more with that and I'll update this post when I do.

Candied Cranberries
2 lbs cranberries or 3 12 oz bags
2 ½ C sugar
zest and ½ C juice from 2 large oranges or 3 smaller ones (Try to get organic ones, since we are using the peel, or get a good veggie wash that removes the wax and chemicals. Trader Joe's has one made from grapefruit seeds that I like.)
2 T grated fresh ginger

Optional modifications:
1 tsp baking soda
Reduce sugar to 1¼ cups

Wash oranges to remove the wax, chemicals and transport grime.

The easy way: use a vegetable peeler to peel off the zest. The hard way: use a zester to zest the oranges.

Slice the oranges in half and juice them. If you don't have a juicer, get a fork and stick it in the meat of the orange and then squeeze the juice out. You only need half a cup of juice, so feel free to enjoy the rest!

 Rinse the cranberries, picking out the ones that look bad.

The easy way: peel and slice the ginger. The hard way: use the zester to grate it.

The easy way: pour some cranberries into your food processor until it's about half full, then put the peeled zest and sliced ginger on top. Chop it all up nice and fine, scraping the sides if needed.

Put everything into a large sauce pan (I make double or triple batches so I use a stock pot) and cook over medium high, stirring frequently until everything is nice and gooey.

The easy way: use an immersion blender to blend it all up until it's at the consistency you want. The hard way: use a spoon to stir and pop cranberries against the side of the pot until it's at the consistency you want.

If you're canning, fill prepared jars to a quarter inch from the top and water bath for 20 minutes. If not, it's ready to serve or put in the fridge for later. If served fresh it can be kinda tart so I'd add a bit more sugar. A few days of sitting sitting in the fridge, or in jars if canned, mellows it out quite a bit.

Notes: The half sugar batch came out delicious, but it never firmed up like the full sugar recipe does. It was also a bit more acidic than I prefer, so I'm planning on playing with the recipe this year and seeing if I can tweak it and if adding some pectin might help it firm up. I'm not sure about the chemistry of the baking soda and natural pectin in the cranberries. Perhaps the baking soda interacts in a way that disables the pectin and that's why it never firmed, but I really don't know. If you know anything about it, leave a comment or shoot me an email!

Edit: I did some searching online and found an interesting article which mentions that baking soda breaks down pectin. Apparently to such an extent that it was used to speed up the softening of boiled vegetables and other interesting uses. So there appears to be no way to have firm cranberries that have baking soda in them. It's good to know! Here's the article if you're interested in being a bit of a geek with me. Unfortunately it's only available as a pdf, but it's still a neat read.

Refried Adzuki Beans

Adzuki beans are small, easy to digest and you don't have to soak them before using them.  They are the only dry bean allowed on the diet because of how easy to digest they are.  They also have an odd flavor compared to my personal favorite, black beans.  Black beans are deep, rich and have a very full flavor all by themselves.  Adzuki beans have a higher flavor, not as rich or rounded, so they need some help when they are the main part of the dish, like in these refried beans.  So I've added onions, garlic and a bit of spice make the flavor richer and more well rounded.

Refried Adzuki Beans

2 T olive oil
1 small onion, chopped, or around 1 cup chopped onion
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp salt
2 pints home canned adzuki beans, or 3 cups cooked beans, drained

Add oil, onion and garlic to a 2 quart sauce pan.  Cook the onions on medium-low heat until browning and translucent.  Add the spices and cook for 30 seconds or so.  If you like chunky refried beans, add beans to the pot 1 spoonful at a time, mashing them with the back of the spoon and stirring them in before adding the next spoonful.  Or if you like smooth beans, just dump them all in, stir them good to blend the spices and onions, and then use an immersion blender or food processor to blend them smooth.  Continue cooking over low heat stirring often until the beans are as thick as you'd like, then refrigerate. 

These beans are best the day after they have been made, to allow time for the flavors to blend.  And they sure are tasty on tacos!

Yield: about 3-4 cups

Greek Salad, from Greece (honestly!)

Back in 2006 my hubby had to work, but our church took a trip to Greece and he sent me along with them as a present!  It was really an experience of a life time.  One of the best things about traveling is experiencing different culture's foods, and I fell in love with the ubiquitous cucumber salad that was served everywhere.  It was pretty warm there and I never wanted a very heavy lunch, so I would get this where I could!  When I got back to the States, I missed it so much I decided to recreate it so I could enjoy it any time.  The amounts are approximate, it all depends on what you like.  Sometimes I put more feta in because I'm wanting it a lot, sometimes I put less so it's just a taste.  Sometimes I don't even put olives in if I'm lazy and don't have any around.

Greek Salad

1 large cucumber, try to find a sorta skinny one, the fat ones can get dry and hollow inside and aren't as tasty
2 medium vine ripened tomatoes, because it really does make a difference in taste
1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
a nice feta, preferably from sheep
pitted kalamata olives, or get a nice european olive blend.  The standard american pimento or black olives don't have the zing the kalamata olives have and won't work the same in this recipe.
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
sprinkle of garlic powder
a nice olive oil

Sometimes the skin on cucumbers can get bitter, especially if it's thick.  You can completely peel the cucumber, or leave zebra stripes on it if you want a bit of skin.  Cut into quarters lengthwise, and then cut slices around 1/8 inch wide or thinner.  Put in a bowl that's big enough you can stir everything together.  Dice the tomatos into around 1/4 inch cubes, chop the onion and add both to the bowl.  If you have feta crumbles, add a goodly amount to the bowl, if not, chop some up into 1/4 inch cubes and add.  Put your kalamata olives in, leaving them whole is traditional, but you can slice them if you want.  Sprinkle spices over everything and then pour enough olive oil to coat.  Mix it all up good, allowing the spices and oil to coat everything.  Serve right away or set it in the fridge to allow the spices to blend and leech their flavor into the oil and veggies.