Spicy Holiday Cranberry Relish @DeborahCrombie #giveaway

 

LUCY BURDETTE: I’m delighted to introduce my friend and wonderful writer, Deborah Crombie, author of the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. (If you haven’t read these, you’re in for a treat!) I persuaded her to share her favorite recipe for holiday cranberry relish. She’ll be giving away a copy of NO MARK UPON HER to one lucky commenter!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: For years I subscribed to Gourmet Magazine, but this cranberry relish recipe is the only one that survived from all the things I tried in those years. It is our Christmas MUST HAVE, at least for my daughter and me! I keep the original messy recipe card because my mom typed it, but here it is properly typed out.

SPICY CRANBERRY RELISH

Ingredients

1 12 oz. package fresh cranberries, picked over and rinsed

1 small fresh jalapeno, seeded and chopped very fine (wear rubber gloves!)

Rind of one orange, julienned

½ tsp freshly ground pepper

½ cup honey

1/3 cup distilled white vinegar

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

1 tsp mustard seeds

½ tsp salt

In a stainless saucepan, combine ingredients and bring to a boil, simmer covered for 10 to 12 minutes, until cranberries begin to pop. Let cool and chill for two hours or overnight. Will keep in refrigerator for at least a week.

DEBS’ NOTES: This is the original recipe. I double it, using one jalapeno for two batches. You can adjust according to your heat tolerance. I’m also very generous with the mustard seeds, using heaping teaspoons. This relish will keep SEVERAL weeks and is great on sandwiches, on cheese boards, etc. etc. I cooked a turkey breast after Thanksgiving, just so I could have turkey/relish/mayo sandwiches. So good!

What are your must-haves for a holiday dinner?

ABOUT DEBORAH: New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie is a native Texan who writes crime novels set in the United Kingdom. Her Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series has received numerous awards, including Edgar, Macavity, and Agatha nominations, and is published in more than a dozen countries to international acclaim.

Crombie lives in North Texas with her husband, German shepherds, and cats, and divides her time between Texas and Great Britain. Her latest novel, A Killing of Innocents, is available from William Morrow, February, 2023.  She is currently working on her twentieth Kincaid/James novel.

Salmon Fish Cakes: Guest Post from Author Deborah Crombie

LUCY BURDETTE: If you haven't read one of Deborah Crombie's books, set in London, you are in for a treat! THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS will be published this week, and we're delighted to welcome Debs to talk about her characters and the way they cook...
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I love books where people eat and drink interesting things. I love to eat and drink interesting things.  I am, in fact, a self-confessed foodie. Which maybe explains why, other than the fact that it give my characters something to do while they talk about the murder in question, people are always eating and drinking in my books.

I should add, “eating and drinking and cooking.”  

In THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS, it’s my Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent, Duncan Kincaid, who’s doing most of the cooking. While Duncan’s wife, Detective Inspector Gemma James, works a high profile murder case in London’s Crystal Palace area, Duncan has taken family leave to care for their three-year-old foster daughter, Charlotte. A bit frustrated with his role as stay-at-home dad, Duncan puts his energy into cooking. And while Gemma appreciates having a gourmet meal on the table when she comes home from work, she’s also a little jealous of his accomplishments. But that doesn’t keep her from enjoying Duncan’s Salmon Fish Cakes. 

I make this recipe every few weeks myself.  It’s adapted from a recipe in Robin Ellis’s Delicious Dishes for Diabetics, and even my hubby, who doesn’t like salmon, loves it. (Robin—that’s Ross Poldark, by the way—adapted the recipe from Nigel Slater.) I’ve used regular flour rather than the chickpea flour that Robin recommends for a diabetic diet, a whole egg rather than the white, and I just break up the raw salmon in a bowl with a fork. The recipe works well with dried dill if you don’t have fresh.

1 lb salmon fillet – skinless and checked for bones
1 egg
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp grain mustard
juice of ½ lemon
bunch of dill – chopped fine
salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

•    Mix all the yogurt sauce ingredients and refrigerate until you are ready to eat.
•    Cut up the salmon fillets in roughly equal-size pieces.
•    Put these in a mixer and pulse three or four times.
•    Avoid working them too much and producing slush at the end.
•    Put the salmon in a bowl.
•    Turn in the egg and the flour, then the mustard, lemon juice and dill.
•    Season with salt and pepper.
•    It’s a good idea to taste the mix for seasoning at this point–the dill and the salt should come through.
•    Refrigerate if not using immediately.

•    Heat the oil in a frying pan and using a dessert spoon scoop out a dollop and make a ball.
•    Put this in the pan and flatten it gently.
•    Cook on a medium-high flame, crisping and browning the outside while making sure the interior cooks through.
   
    Yogurt sauce
•    2 x 125 ml pots low-fat yogurt
•    1 tsp grain mustard
•    good pinch of chopped dill
•    salt
Serve with lemon wedges.
 
The trick to these, I’ve discovered, is not to overcook the salmon, and to handle the patties very gently.
Duncan serves the fishcakes with steamed new potatoes, the yogurt sauce, and a green salad.  Oh, and a bottle of chilled Sauvignon Blanc.
(Credit for the photos to Robin Ellis and Meredith Wheeler. My fishcakes don’t look quite as pretty.)

Kit, Duncan’s fourteen-year-old son, takes after his dad on the cooking front.  He surprises the family with his own recipe for Gourmet Mac Cheese, but as he doesn’t share the ingredients, I can’t pass the recipe on.

There’s lots of eating of yummy sandwiches in the book, too, and meals from a lovely pub in Putney called The Jolly Gardener.  

But the best meal I had while doing the research for this book I didn’t manage to fit into the story. It was at a venerable restaurant called Joanna’s in South London’s Crystal Palace area. Joanna’s is famous for their mussels, so my friend and I started by sharing the mussels in white wine, butter, and garlic, served with very fresh crusty artisan bread from the bakery next door. We had a debate over whether or not to lick the bowl. Then on to Roast Belly of Suffolk Pork, Savoy cabbage, creamy mash (mashed potatoes, sometimes with other root vegetables,) and Kentish apple & ginger sauce . To finish, we shared my absolute all-time favorite dessert, Sticky Toffee Pudding.  Everything was to die for. And it was a good thing I had a long walk down the hill to the train, because I needed it.

Okay, now I’m starving. And planning what to eat on my trip to London in just a few weeks. Oh, and what Duncan, Gemma, and Kit can cook in the NEXT book.



You can read more about Deborah and THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS at her website.