I made a Mexican themed dinner for friends last night. The most successful experiment was Fresh Cranberry Salsa. I found the recipe in “Cooking with Too Hot Tamales,” which I checked out from the library. And, of course, I didn’t do it exactly as written.The recipe was meant to be a component of Turkey Tamales with Fresh Cranberry Salsa. Tamales are a lot of work– plus one of the ingredients was Turkey Braised in Black Mole, which was another recipe with a long list of ingredients. I didn’t have that kind of energy, so I just made the salsa and served it with chips.
It was crunchy, sweet, a little tart and a little spicy. I’m sure it would be a nice complement to turkey. I would vastly prefer this to the super sweet canned glop that is on the Thanksgiving menu every year. I’m not hosting Thanksgiving, but I might offer to bring it along.
Here’s the recipe, as well as my notes. I cut the recipe in half.
Fresh Cranberry Salsa
1 pound fresh or thawed frozen cranberries (I used ½ pound of frozen and didn’t thaw them before starting the recipe. Note that a bag is 12 ounces, so I used more than half of the bag.)
1 cup sugar (used a scant ½ cup)
2 teaspoons grated orange zest (used 1)
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced (Used one. I might leave the peel on for color.)
3 oranges, peeled, seeded and diced (used 2 Valencia oranges)
4 serrano chiles, stemmed and diced with seeds (I couldn’t find serrano chiles. I used 1 jalapeno without seeds. I’d use 2 or more next time.)
1 bunch cilantro, leaves and stems, chopped (I’m not a fan of cilantro. I used a little bit.)
1 bunch scallions, chopped (I used some scallions and some red onions)
Finely chop the cranberries in a food processor or by hand (I used a food processor). Combine in a bowl with the remaining ingredients and mix together. Set aside at room temperature 1 hour and then chill until ready to serve. Store in the refrigerator as long as 3 days.
(I thought the end product was going to be too chunky to serve with chips. I threw it all into the food processor and pulsed a few times to get it a bit finer. You wouldn’t have to do this if you served it with turkey.)