Cranberry Relish

This is one of our favorite dinners. Roast chicken, in a rich gravy made from the very gelatinized bone broth from the roasting process, is great comfort food, but it is the cranberry relish that makes it so very special.

This is a very quick to do dinner, thanks to my Zojirushi rice cooker. I “baked”(separately) sweet potatoes, and then the white potatoes to make the “mashers”, in about an hour without any assistance from me once they were in the pot. So why is there no sweet potato on my plate? I ate one as a snack before dinner! They are irresistible to me straight out of the cooker.

Sweet potatoes are one of life’s great pleasures. They bake up splendidly with not much in the way of requirements, and provide their own “dish”. Just grab a spoon, cut the potato in half, and scoop out the loveliness into your mouth. No need for any topping or fussing. Put the skin down the disposer, rinse off the spoon, and let your tummy enjoy the warmth, all the while knowing the great nutritional benefits that you have just provided for your body.

But the cranberry relish . . . ah, the cranberry relish. When cranberries are available I usually make up a couple of batches of the relish and then freeze about four packages of the cranberries to trot out during the year to make a fresh batch now and then.

It is really easy – Grind up twelve ounces of cranberries, a whole orange, and add a cup of sugar. Then let it sit in the refrigerator for a day to meld flavors. This is one recipe in my repertoire that requires more sugar than I usually like to use, but we eat the finished product in small amounts.

My mother would put chopped pecans in this, and sometimes I sprinkle some on top at serving time, but if you add them in, they get soggy. The combination of the flavors, though, is quite enjoyable.

The color alone is enough to make me smile! ;->

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