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.

Libby Dodd's Fresh Cranberry Relish #Thanksgiving

LUCY BURDETTE: I hope you all know how much we appreciate our visitors and readers--we are very grateful for each one of you! Today I’m thrilled to welcome a very special guest, our own Libby Dodd. Libby has been a fan of our kitchen for years. She often takes the time to comment on our recipes, leaving suggestions that make it clear she is a great cook herself. One day a few months ago, she talked about a cranberry relish that her mother always made and I thought—she would make an amazing Thanksgiving guest. And she agreed, so welcome Libby!

LIBBY DODD: I am thrilled to be a guest at MLK!  I’ve been a fan for years and try to make the time to come by and comment every day as my way of saying “Thanks” to the hardworking writers here. I hope my offering is up to your usually high standards.

I come from a family of cooks.  I grew up with my parents cooking from the original Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  Our dog was significantly overweight from the cream filled leftovers!

Libby's mother and daughter

Holidays were a mixed bag.  My mother hosted the dinners and took responsibility for the bulk of the cooking.  Over time this got to be too much for her.  My sister and I began taking on parts of the menu and preparing them.  We found, however, that having all three of us actively working in the kitchen at the same time did not work well.  Too much friction.  If we were men, I’d say it was too much testosterone!

We got smart and started preparing everything we could at home and bringing it for finishing/warming at her house.

The raw cranberry relish was her domain, however.  She bought a food processor very early on to facilitate this.  Otherwise, she would have had to use an old-fashioned food grinder clamped to the table to chop everything. (As a side note, my daughter resisted this relish and insisted on canned, jellied sauce for years.  She has come around now and loves this version.)

Memory is an interesting thing.  What we think we remember is not necessarily what actually happened.

Case in point: the recipe for my mother’s holiday cranberry relish.

Going exclusively by my memory, I thought it was roughly one bag of fresh cranberries, one whole orange, one half lemon, and “some” sugar (maybe a cup?).

I reached out to my sister who has the actual handwritten recipe in her collection. It calls for 3 oranges, one bag of cranberries, and 2 cups of sugar.

3 oranges?!  2 cups of sugar?!  Oh my.

We wonder if the cranberries used to come in larger bags, perhaps 16 oz., as opposed to the 12 oz. Ocean Spray bags that are available today.

So, I offer this revised version of the recipe with the caveat that you can adjust the ingredients according to your taste: more cranberries, more fruit, more or less sugar.  

For today, I’m going with the following...

MARTHA’S FRESH CRANBERRY RELISH

12-16 ounces of fresh cranberries (organic comes in ½ pound bags, regular in 12 oz. bags) *

One whole orange, deseeded (since you use the whole thing, try for organic) Cut up **

½ lemon, deseeded  (again, organic if you can) Cut up

1 cup sugar ***

*I used a pound of organic cranberries

**I ended up using ¾ of the orange

***With the full pound of cranberries, I think 1 ¼ cups might be good

Put all in a food processor and chop to desired degree.  Depending on the size of your food processor, you may need to do this in two batches. It should look like jewels (in my opinion), not an evenly textured mush.

Put in a covered container and allow to age for a day or so.
Note: Ocean Spray says this can be frozen.  I’ve never tried.

This is great with turkey but is also great in sandwiches and with other meats, like pork. (It also works to freeze and use later.)

Lucy: Thanks so much, Libby, for coming to cook in our kitchen! Readers, who is the cook for your holiday feasts?