DRIED CRANBERRY CHUTNEY

If you live in the United States, Dried Cranberry Chutney on your Thanksgiving table seems unnecessary; you have fresh cranberries, canned cranberry sauce (ahhh, the memory of that schlopping sound as it came out of the can, really brings me back home!) and frozen cranberries along with thousands of recipes for homemade cranberry sauce. Here in Italy, all I have at the moment is a bag of “craisins” given to me by Suzanne Mallon, a fellow ex-pat American. So, my plan is to test out this recipe:

1 cup of dried cranberries (mine were pre-cut in half)
½ cup brown sugar, if you can find jaggery, it will give a more voluptuous flavor
1½ cups of water
1/4 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cayenne pepper
1-3in piece of orange zest
1 tsp whole cloves
4 whole cardamom pods, broken open
1 cinnamon stick
4 tbsp lime juice or bitter orange juice
julienned zest of lime or bitter orange

Place the cranberries, water, sugar or jaggery and salt in a saucepan. Tie the cayenne, orange zest, cloves cardamom, and cinnamon in a piece of cheese cloth. Add sachet to the saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Then lower the heat to slowly simmer the mixture for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat. Take out the spice sachet and press it to release as much flavor as possible. Mix in the citrus juice. Serve at room temperature sprinkled with citrus zest julienne. This can stay covered in the refrigerator for up to a week. Ladled into a sterile jar and sealed tightly, it can last for months.

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