Cranberry Sauce for Meat
Simple, quick, and perfect with meat! To bring out the full flavor of a meat dish and give it a festive presentation, you'll want to serve it with a sauce — and cranberry sauce is the best of all. Sweet-tart with a pleasant hint of bitterness, it beautifully complements and brings out the flavor of the meat. These days you can find a sauce for every taste on store shelves, but nothing homemade compares to store-bought. A sauce made right before serving is fresher, more aromatic, more natural, and, naturally, more delicious.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
Gather your ingredients. A simple cranberry sauce for meat takes very little: cranberries, sugar, water, and starch. You can use fresh or frozen cranberries — picked yourself ahead of time or store-bought. The main thing is that they be fully ripe (underripe ones make the sauce bitter) but not overripe, with the berries whole.
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Step 2:
Rinse the cranberries well, discard any bruised or spoiled ones, and drain them in a colander or on a paper towel so the water runs off and the berries dry.
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Step 3:
Put the cranberries in a saucepan — don't use aluminum, or the berry juice will react with it. Pour in half a cup of cold clean water. Turn on the heat and add a couple of tablespoons of sugar.
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Step 4:
Stir the potato starch into the remaining water. You can make the sauce without starch, but then you'd have to simmer the cranberries longer to thicken it — and that would cook off the nutrients the berries contain.
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Step 5:
Once the mixture comes to a boil and the berries start to burst, pour in the starch slurry in a thin stream, stirring the sauce right away with a spoon. Simmer over low heat for about 3 minutes, until the sauce reduces and thickens. Turn off the heat and let it cool a little. Purée the mixture smooth with a blender or a wooden masher. Let it cool to room temperature, then chill it in the fridge for half an hour.
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Step 6:
After chilling, the cranberry sauce thickens and its flavor deepens. If you like, you can add various seasonings: a little hot pepper for those who want it spicy, or cinnamon, cloves, or nutmeg for a more aromatic sauce. The sauce is ready. Serve it alongside your meat. Enjoy!
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Cranberries - 26 kcal/100g
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
- Potato starch - 300 kcal/100g
