COINTREAU CRANBERRY RELISH

Due to some surgery, I found myself with some extra downtime pre-Thanksgiving this year. Naturally, I binged on cooking shows, Thanksgiving specials in particular. I garnered some great ideas to try for next Thanksgiving since I couldn’t cook this year.

However, with some help from my sister, I was able to try out Ted Allen’s Cointreau Cranberry Relish and it was amazing! I always make fresh cranberry sauce, but is has always been very standard (i.e. basic) and often I’m the only one who has any. That is now forever changed with this cranberry relish, which has amazing depth of favor and fantastic texture. It has a perfect balance of sweet, tart and spice from the cinnamon. Even my sister, who always passes on the cranberry sauce, had this adorning her Thanksgiving plate and every subsequent plate the rest of the weekend.

This is really so good you’ll want to make it all fall and winter! I want it in the fridge all the time - great with turkey (of course), roast chicken, pork chops and in sandwiches. I am even tempted to heat it up and use it as an ice cream topping! As I write this I realize little jars full of this tasty relish would make fantastic hostess gifts this holiday season. Awesome.

Cointreau Cranberry Relish

Adapted from Ted Allen’s version, as seen on The Kitchen, and recipe on The Food Network.

Ingredients

12 oz organic Cranberries

1 finely diced Granny Smith Apple

3/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of Cointreau

1/2 cup water

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (generous 1/4 teaspoon)

Grated zest from one lemon and orange

Directions

Combine one 12-ounce bag cranberries, 1 diced Granny Smith apple, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup Cointreau, 1/2 cup water and 1/4 teaspoon each ground cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the berries start to pop and continue cooking about 20 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the grated zest of 1 each lemon and orange. Taste. If you feel it should be a little sweeter (I decreased the original amount of sugar) add a little more, if it needs a little more cinnamon, add now; cook for a few more minutes. Set aside to keep at room temperature if using shortly for a meal or chill to keep for longer. It is even delicious straight out of the fridge.

Enjoy!

Notes:

• Always buy organic if you can, especially important when using the skin of items, like the lemon and oranges you zest for this recipe.

• The original recipe calls for a peeled and diced apple. We left the skin on the apple, why not? It’s less work and the skin is where most of the nutrition is. But worth mentioning, is that the skin will not breakdown so if you don’t want that texture in your relish, then peel the apple before dicing it.

• Ours seemed a little too sweet when we followed the original recipe, so we added a little more cinnamon and cooked it a little longer. After it was chilled it was no longer too sweet but I reduced the sugar in this version to tame the sweetness a bit more.

• I specified finely diced as the original recipe didn’t specify. Without direction from the recipe, we thought a dice similar in size to the cranberries made the most sense. However, in hind sight, a smaller dice would have been better as the cranberries break up much more easily than the apples so in the end the apple pieces stood out.

SLAW WITH JAPAPENO-LIME DRESSING

A fantastic go-to side dish. It is also great on tacos, especially fish tacos. The recipe makes a ton so it is especially great for a big group. As an extra bonus, the dressing itself makes a great sauce to add freshness and tang to many things, it even works as a salsa for tortilla chips.

Enjoy!!!

Slightly adapted from Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook

Ingredients 

Dressing

• Juice and zest of 1 lime
• 3 T rice vinegar
• 1 T honey
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 or 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 cup vegetable oil or 1/2 cup buttermilk plus 1/2 cup mayonnaise

Salad

• 1/2 small head green cabbage
• 1/2 small head purple cabbage
• 1 small jicama
• 2 carrots
• 1 sweet red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 1 medium red onion
• 1/2 cups minced chives

Directions

Combine the ingredients up to coriander in a bowl or food processor.  Whisk or blend while slowly drizzling in the oil.  If using buttermilk and mayonnaise, simply whisk together all of the ingredients to blend well.  Adjust seasonings and set aside.

Core the cabbages and finely shred them.  If using jicama, peel it, cut it in half and slice into thin, even rounds.  Julienne slides into long, thin matchsticks,   Peel carrots and slice thin, diagonal coins.  Julienne each coin into long matchsticks.  Seed peppers and slice into fine strips.  Slice thin slivers of onion.  Roughly chop the stemmed cilantro.

Toss all of the vegetables in a large bowl and mix in the dressing.  Let the slaw sit at least 30 minutes, then toss again before serving. 

ROASTED CARROTS WITH PARSLEY MINT YOGURT SAUCE

Easter 2018 - Buffet Brunch for a large crowd

Carrots cut smaller and roasted off earlier in the morning, waiting until it is time to assemble the dish just before brunch time

Here's an easy way to elevate your carrot dish. Simply roasted carrots dressed up with some fresh parsley, mint, lemon yogurt sauce and feta - an excellent side dish or vegetarian dish (I would add some toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds if a vegetarian main). An extra bonus is that the carrots can be room temperature which eases the "having everything ready (and hot) at the same time" part of cooking a meal - It would be excellent as a BBQ side to add some light freshness in contrast to grilled meats. Another reason I love this recipe is that it is so easy to scale up for a larger group - just get whatever amount of carrots you think would be good for your group and scale the rest up accordingly. If you need to, split the carrots across 2 baking sheets so they are not too crowded. The sauce is even delicious on raw carrots! 

April 4 2018 - We just served this dish over the weekend at the the Easter egg hunt and brunch we hosted for our neighbors up at our place in the Catskills and were so please with how it turned out! This time I cut the large carrots into smaller long pieces (see photo) so that there were a better serving size for the larger group and I liked it even more than keeping the carrots their full length. It will be my go to method from now on. I would now recommend this dish even more whole heartedly (if that was possible) for a delightful side dish to any meal. You can make the sauce hours ahead of time, you can prep the carrots the day before, it can be served with the carrots at room temperature so they can be roasted off earlier in the day and left on the counter until you are ready to assemble. So it is a really tasty dish that is a breeze to pull together and you don't have to worry about keeping it warm. Oh, and it presents beautifully. What more can you want from a recipe? 

Prepped Carrots, leaving whole

Easter 2016 - sit down meal for 6 people

Roasted Carrots with Parsley Mint Yogurt Sauce

Martha Stewart Living recipe published in the April 2016 issue with my added notes and photos.

Ingredients 

1 1/2 pounds thin carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise if thick
1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, plus optional whole leaves for serving
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint, plus optional whole small leaves/chopped larger leaves for serving
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt

Shopping notes:  You should buy carrots with their tops still on, they will be sweeter. Look for pretty bunches for a pretty end result! Also, most of the nutrition in carrots is closest to the outer edges. If you by baby carrots, you loose a lot of that.

Directions

Carrots

Preheat oven to 450°F. 

On a rimmed baking sheet, toss carrots with olive oil to coat and season with salt. Roast carrots, until tender and beginning to brown slightly, about 20 - 25 minutes. Flip carrots once in the middle of roasting. Let cool.

Sauce

Process 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1/3 cup chopped  parsley, 2 tablespoons chopped mint, 2 teaspoons lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to a fine paste in a food processor. Add yogurt and puree. The sauce will be luscious in texture and the color will exclaim spring and summer. 

Serving

Spread some of the yogurt sauce on the a platter, place carrots on top of the sauce. Sprinkle with feta if desired, but the dish is really great even without it. If you wish, drizzle with a little more olive oil (I don't think this is necessary). If you saved any small fresh parsley and/or mint leaves, sprinkle them on top. Put some of the yogurt sauce in a small condiment bowl with a little spoon so your guests can add more sauce to their carrots right on their plate. Serve!