“It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees..” whilst there’s always a time to listen to Joni Mitchell, now is the time to make your Christmas sauces

Listening to “River” by Joni Mitchell always makes me feel nostalgic and christmassy, and a little bit sad but this really is the time of year when you need to turn off your old nostalgic 70’s songs and think about making bread and cranberry sauce in advance, to be placed in the freezer ready for Christmas day (or you could cook whilst listening to 70’s nostalgia, another option?). You will thank me, when you smugly take them out to defrost the night before and that is just two less things to worry about

Today, however we are starting with the Cranberry Sauce. Fresh cranberries are available in the supermarket from about now, and whilst you can buy bottled or even shop-made cranberry sauce, it is so, so easy to make your own and much more satisfying. I always buy them now, make and freeze the sauce; ready to take out on Christmas Eve.

Ingredients:

150g caster sugar, the Juice and zest of 1 lime and 1 orange,  made up to 150 ml with water,

 300g fresh cranberries.

Then for serving on the day, you can add the zest of  a lime or an orange and if you want a very grown up flavour, 1 tablespoon each of tequila and triple sec which makes it taste deliciously like a cosmopolitan meets margarita. I made this version of the recipe on GMTV and apparently it was very popular!

METHOD:

• Add the sugar, water and orange and  lime juice and zest to a saucepan

• Over a low heat, gently dissolve the sugar and simmer for 2-3 minutes until it is clear and syrupy

• Add the cranberries and bring to the boil – this is the best bit as you can hear the beautiful little red berries popping.
• Reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes

• Remove from the heat, cool and freeze if you wish
• Before serving: Add the orange zest and if wanted, the triple sec and vodka

(If you want to make a less alcoholic version but want the flavour, add the booze at the end of the cooking and boil for a further few minutes which will burn off the alcohol but leave the taste)

And that’s it!  Watch this space over the next weeks for more Christmas loveliness, bread sauce next week.