Make Ahead

Port Wine Cranberry Sauce - Silky and Smooth

by:
November  6, 2009
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0 Ratings
Port Wine Cranberry Sauce - Silky and Smooth
  • Serves 4 to 5 glass jars of 5 ounces
Author Notes

Living in Italy is many people's dream, but it has it's draw backs. My husband being British, whenever he goes to England he comes back full of things that we can't find here in Italy, as is the case for cranberries. This week I wanted to make my cranberry sauce and since Monday, I have called all fruit importers in Italy, or at least a long list of them but no cranberries anywhere in Italy. Seeing my desperation, my husband remembered the PX store in Naples that serves the Nato base and found through a friend that they had fresh cranberries from Wisconsin Believe it or not, he went from Florence to Naples and back - 8 hours of train, just to get cranberries so I could make my cranberry sauce recipes for Food52. So I am forever grateful to him and I dedicate both this recipe and the Pinot Noir Cranberry recipe to him. —Maria Teresa Jorge

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 22.2 ounces fresh cranberries (6 cups) sort through, rinsed in cold water and drained (it was 2 12 ounce packs picked through)
  • 1 cup moscovado sugar
  • 1 cup Red Port Wine (the better the wine, the better your sauce)
  • 1/4 cup orange juice - frshly squeezed
  • 1/4 cup tangerine juice, freshly squeezed
  • 6 pieces orange rind (without the white part)
  • 6 pieces tangerine rind (without the white part)
  • 1 tablespoon Sechuan Pepper crushed in mortar
  • 1/2 lime - freshly squeezed juice
Directions
  1. Put all the ingredients in a non reactive pan and mix well over high heat, stiring continuously to dissolve the sugar. When it reaches boiling point turn off the heat and let marinate overnight.
  2. Put the pan back over medium heat and when it reaches boilng point, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally - the berries will all pop open and release their juice. The sauce will thicken due to the high content of pectin that the cranberries have.
  3. Put a medium mesh sieve over a bowl, pour the cranberry sauce in 2 or 3 goes, pressing the sauce with the back of a small ladle to get all the juices out. You will have a silky smooth sauce.
  4. Put the sauce back in the pan, bring it to a boil, remove from the heat, add the lime juice, stir and fill the jars.
  5. Serve with turkey on Thanksgiving Day or with roast pork and keep some to serve with chocolate desserts and vanilla ice-cream.
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3 Reviews

iowabaker
iowabaker October 30, 2011
How much is a "piece" of orange/tangerine rind?
 
AntoniaJames
AntoniaJames December 11, 2009
Your darling husband is a keeper! Such devotion . . . . to travel all the way to Naples for cranberries. The recipe is gorgeous and so tasty sounding! Putting in the Szechuan peppercorn is interesting and inspired. This recipe looks like a keeper too! P.S. The expression "keeper" is one that recreational fishers use to describe a fish that is large and good enough to keep (and not throw back in the stream or lake). It's been incorporated into American colloquial use to mean, as you might expect, something or someone that is exceptionally good, and that you want to keep for a long time. ;o)
 
Maria T.
Maria T. December 17, 2009
Yes, you're right, my husband was trylly amazing, he knows how much it means to me to participate in food52 and even I was amazed at how he found the cranberries in Naples. It came out very well and I offered some jars to my expat neighbours for Thanksgiving and they liked it. So it was worth while.