Cranberry Chutney

With the holidays right around the corner, there are a lot of food items on my list that need to be prepared!  In my mid-twenties I was handed the torch of being responsible for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  With that torch came the old standbys we'd always eaten, but over the years, I've created a few food traditions that I will be happy to hand off at some point, but probably not for another 40 or 50 years ;-)

Over the next few days (and possibly weeks), I will share a few of the recipes I make every single year.  I love each of these items and hope you will, too!  Right now we're going to talk about Cranberry Chutney.

As I mentioned a few days ago, one of my favorite recipe books to use is The Thanksgiving Table and while some of the recipes inside its pages are a bit...fancy...for my tastes, most of them are wonderful!  Funny story...I started making Cranberry Chutney, actually, because I wanted something a bit more fancy than the old cranberry-sauce-in-a-can-standby!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups fresh cranberries (picked over and stemmed)
• 2 1/2 cups of sugar
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 granny smith apples (peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch dice)
• 2 firm Bosc or Anjou pears (peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch dice)
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1/3 cup crystallized ginger
• 1/2 cup whole hazelnuts (toasted, skins removed, and halved)

Process:

• In a deep 6-quart saucepan, combine cranberries, sugar, 1 1/4 cups water, cloves, cinnamon sticks and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar
• Cook until the cranberries begin to pop open, about 10-12 minutes
• Adjust the heat so the mixture simmers
• Stir in the apples, pears, onions, raisins and ginger and continue to cook until thick, about 10-15 minutes
• Remove from heat and stir in the hazlenuts.  Allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
• Remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves if you can find them
• Refrigerate in tightly sealed jars for up to 3 months

Notes:

• This recipe makes about 2 quarts, but I usually double it so I have plenty of 1/2 pints to give away (I got 13 1/2 pints and 2 full pints out of this latest batch which gives me plenty to keep in the fridge for a while...it really does keep in the fridge for 3 months!)
• I replace the hazelnuts with roasted, unsalted cashews because they're easier to find and I love them
• While this makes a yummy side dish, my favorite way to eat it is to heat up a little bit (in a pan or in the microwave) and spoon it on top of some vanilla ice cream!  Trust me, you will fall in love!

ENJOY!

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