Cranberry Sauce

 

500g fresh cranberries (frozen are fine if you can’t lay your hands on nice fresh ones)

4 bay leaves

2 whole star anis, or four cloves

2 sticks of cinnamon

½ cup golden (or unbleached sugar)

Zest and juice of two oranges (should come to just over half a cup of juice)

Method

Sterilise a glass jar or two.  Remove any rubber seal and lid and submerse in boiling water, then place immaculately clean and dry jars in an oven for ten minutes at 180C.

Place all the ingredients in a heavy bottomed pan.  Cook slowly, over a medium to low heat, stirring all the time to make sure it doesn’t catch.  After about ten minutes, the sugar should be melted and the cranberries should all have burst.  There will still be a little liquid in the bottom of the pan and the mixture should be loose; it will thicken up quite a bit as it cools.

Pour the mixture into glass jars while the mixture and jar is piping hot, and seal tightly.  This can be a little fiddly if dealing with Kilner style jars and rubber seals as you don’t want to touch the jar or seal too much rendering it unsterilized; but do it with immaculately clean hands and bite your lip as you singe your fingers! 

Seal whilst hot, and leave the mixture in the jars to cool fully before placing in the fridge.  It should last at least two weeks if left unopened, and a week once the first spoonful has been devoured.  Particularly good with stilton, most other hard, strong cheeses, and, obviously…Turkey.