Friday, November 16, 2018

Cranberry Salsa--put it up or give it away

Cranberry Salsa--put it up or give it away

Sweet and spicy, this gluten free condiment is terrific on a leftover turkey sandwich. The bright color makes a lovely edible gift during the holiday season.



image of  a plate containing a turkey sandwich topped with cranberry salsa


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I have a confession and an apology. Apology first. When I shared the Cranberry Chicken Swiss Chard Leek Enchiladas I was unaware that one of the ingredients I used, cranberry salsa, was not always available. I'm sorry.


Now for the confession--I often work ahead, posting recipes made up to a year in advance. See, I'm slow as the molasses in my cold kitchen in the wintertime. If I were to get recipes written, photographed and typed and published in order I'd be sharing tomato recipes in November, pumpkin recipes in January, and butternut squash recipes in April.


Nobody wants that--not even the folks Down Under?! Instead of missing the seasons by a mile, I opt to save posts until they are seasonally ripe. I've got some flexibility that way, so I can toss in a Beef and Venison Sloppy Joe recipe or a Slow Cooker Apple Chai for a crowd when the spirit moves me [and I'm asked].


Sweet and spicy, this gluten free condiment of honey-sweetened cranberries, onions, and peppers is terrific on a leftover turkey sandwich. The bright color makes a lovely edible gift during the holiday season.



Most of the time this method--of working ahead and taking my time, works fine. Sometimes I screw up. Royally. In this case I tried to find the same brand of cranberry salsa in the store and even contacted Ocean Spray only to learn that they don't make cranberry salsa each year. Instead of just saying 'oh well, you're on your own', I grabbed a bag of cranberries from my freezer stash and some hot peppers from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share and made a batch.


pic of a pot of bubbling cranberry salsa



If you've ever made cranberry sauce from the bag of berries, you can make cranberry salsa. It's just boiling and stirring, after all. If your cranberry sauce involves opening a can from both ends, let's talk and explore your options.


image of a pantry shelf filled with jars of home-canned goods.



I canned this cranberry salsa. In fact I've canned so many things that my shelf support broke! Luckily the shelf fell onto the jars of salsa verde and Cantina Style Strawberry Salsa, so nothing slid to the floor. Although I did get 7 jars to fill up my canner, I did have a wee bit left over and it has been in my fridge for 2 weeks and tastes delicious. I'll bet it's good for at least 2-3 weeks in the fridge, and that's plenty long for Thanksgiving turkey sandwich leftovers. That means you don't have to process this before using.


image of a making a turkey sandwich with cranberry salsa, cheese, kohlrabi pickles, lettuce, and bread
Salad greens from the farm share and kohlrabi pickles make this sandwich amazing.




If you have a Thanksgiving gift-giving urge you could whip up a batch of this and ladle into half pint jars (you'll have about 10) then cover with reusable lids and refrigerate. Encourage the lucky recipient to spread this on a Thanksgiving turkey leftover sandwich (may I suggest Multigrain Cereal Buns or the Multigrain Sourdough Bread?).


photo of jars of cranberry salsa cooling on the kitchen counter after they have come out of a boiling water bath



This recipe is adapted from the National Center for Home Food Preservation's one. That recipe calls for red onion and serrano peppers and I had neither, so I used what hot peppers I had from our farm share and my garden--mostly jalapeños with a couple of spicier ones thrown in. This made about 80 ounces. Because it's late in the canning season for me, I cobbled together an assortment of 8 to 16 ounce jars. I used the same processing time for all of the jars, but if you're not a canner it will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.


image of a pot containing the ingredients needed to make cranberry salsa



Do you like making salsa? I sure do. I've got canning recipes for Cantina Style Strawberry Salsa, Canned Peach Salsa with Golden Plums, Salsa Verde with Roasted Hatch Chiles, and Roasted Corn & Hatch Chile Salsa. For fresh salsa recipes, I've got Harvest Sweet Potato Salsa, Fresh Cherry Peach Salsa, and Fresh Peach and Corn Salsa.


behind the scenes image in the kitchen, showing cranberry salsa simmering on the stove and a canning pot standing by



Sweet and spicy, this gluten free condiment of honey-sweetened cranberries, onions, and peppers is terrific on a leftover turkey sandwich. The bright color makes a lovely edible gift during the holiday season.


image of a store bought marked down coffee cake on a kitchen counter
Reality check--I can't cook and can in the same day. This was my canning fuel and the kids' after school snack.



For more cranberry recipes, please see my Cranberry Recipe Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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