Unplanned Cooking

It’s Turkey Day! Not the Turkey Day. Turkey Day as in our bird is here, in store, waiting for pick-up. We’ll rub its body down with some salt, and swaddle it up in a plastic bag to dry brine in our refrigerator for three days. But before we drive over to Linden Hills Co-Op to meet our little guy (or gal?  What is our gender preference?  Doesn’t matter; we’ll love eating ‘em just the same), we’ll whip up some cranberry sauce.

I can’t believe I’m actually planning ahead for the big feast.

I found this recipe on Food 52, a fabulous web site for home cooks. Only I’m taking a cue from The Kitchen Butterfly and substituting pecans for walnuts.  And salting it up a bit.

Pear, Brandy and Pecan Cranberry Sauce, adapted from Not lazy.  Rustic. That should be my slogan:

• 1/3 cup brandy, plus 2-3 tablespoons
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 cups cranberries
• 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 barlett pears, peeled
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• zest of 1 orange

First, we filled 1/3 of our measuring cup with brandy. Which we just happened to have on hand. Then, we added water to it, until the liquid hovered at the 1/2 cup line. We set the cup aside.

Then we poured our cranberries, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and black pepper into our saucepot.

We stirred in our brandy/water mixture.

Then, we grated in our pears and orange zest, and brought our sauce to a boil on the stove.  We reduced the heat to medium, and stirred for 10 – 12 minutes until our cranberries burst. Finally, we removed our sauce from the heat and stirred in 2 tablespoons of brandy.

We’ll add the pecans right before we serve the meal.

One dish down.

Only three more to go.

This is yummy.  Really yummy.