Cranberry Sauce Recipe

For the holiday season this year, I am responsible for the fresh cranberry sauce. There are guests involved and since I have never made cranberry sauce I decided on a pre-thanksgiving day trial run. To my delight, the following recipe came out most excellently and therefore it was a must for my slowly growing recipe collection.

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• small amount (maybe 1/2 teaspon) of fresh ginger finely chopped
  

Combine water, orange juice, sugar and ginger in a small saucepan. Bring ingredients to boil and then reduce heat and cover -- simmering for 5 to 10 minutes. Boiling this mixture ensures that the sugar is fully dissolved and that the ginger is ever so slighlty cooked. If you want the ginger to be more subtle in flavor then simmer longer. You may have to add a bit of water as it will boil off.

Wash the cranberries and drain. Then add them to the boiling mixture above. After just a few minutes they will begin to burst. It may be best to keep the lid on while the berries are bursting otherwise some of the mixture will come flying out of the pan. Lower the temperature and simmer a bit with the lid on but monitor and stir the mixture frequently. The syrup like mixture will begin to foam and boil up in the pan. At this point its a matter of taste on just how long you wish to continue boiling. Its thickening up nicely now and probably ready. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl that can be be placed into the refrigerator for cooling. Thats it. Licking the spoon is a real treat!