Paleo-ish Sour Cherry Cranberry Sauce

Guys…the countdown is on!  The leaves are definitely turning now, the markets are bursting with gourds, squashes and cranberries, and the air smells faintly of earthy leaves, dewey grass and, more often than I would care to admit, dog sh*t.  I also had to drop $30 on a dozen Quinces (a.k.a heavy rock-like fruit things somewhat approximating apples) for my Mum and schlepp them to TO this past weekend.  All of these things (plus several midterms looming on the horizon) signify only one thing.  Thanksgiving!  The second best holiday of the year is almost here!!!!!   Time to celebrate!  Whoop whoop!

I’ve always loved Thanksgiving because it, like Christmas, is one of the few holidays where people come together for the sake of each other (as opposed to birthdays which are always about one person) and then eat lots of food!  AND, it’s not just any food.  It’s food which is specific to Thanksgiving…and Christmas.  So I guess we can say that it’s specific to the two best holidays of the year!

Anyway, I think we can all agree that I love food.  So any holiday which is about catching up with friends over seasonal home-prepared feasts is A-ok by me!

Now, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in my Maple Walnut Granola post, my Mum makes the best Thanksgiving dinner ever.  I know everyone says that about their family Thanksgiving dinner, but in this case, it’s actually true!

You see, like everyone else who celebrates Thanksgiving (except those who have  delicious hams or something other than poultry), she makes all the standard fare; tasty turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and pie.  BUT her turkey comes with a Madeira cream sauce, her stuffing has prunes and sausages in it, her potatoes have an unknown amount of butter, sour cream and leeks in it, AND one of her pies is a poached pear custard pie WITH a red wine reduction drizzled on top.

Her pumpkin pie also the best I’ve ever had because she roasts her own pumpkin, adds a secret spice to her pumpkin pie spice mix and, (of course) adds cream to her pie mix.  She then tops this caramel-coloured beauty with toasted pecans.  Oh!  And I should add that she uses Pâte Brisée, a buttery and flaky pastry, straight out of Julia Child’s cookbook for her pie crust.  Drooling yet?  No?

Well then…On top of that, she also makes Quince paste (hence the expensive rock-like apple things mentioned above), spiced peaches and pears, and not one, not two, but THREE cranberry sauces; regular, spicy, and deliciously decadent.  Can you guess which one I’m gonna share with you today?

That’s right!  Today, I’m sharing an adapted version of Momma’s deliciously decadent sour cherry cranberry sauce with caramelized shallots (apologies to those of you who were hoping for that pie recipe.  Or the potatoes.  Sadly, neither of those recipes fit my diet without a good dose of Benadryl, and I haven’t yet adapted them; yet being the operative word).

Anyway…Pulled from Gourmet’s November issue in 1995, this cranberry sauce has been a staple in my family’s Turkeyfests ever since.  It tastes SO different from any other cranberry sauce you’ll ever have; the tartness of the sour cherries and the cranberries still patently present over the sweetness of the literally caramelized shallots…mmmm…. What’s more, it’s really not hard to make.  It’s slightly more labour-intensive than making regular cranberry sauce (if you’ve ever done that), and definitely more labour-intensive than cracking open a can of the store-bought stuff, but it’s not HARD to make and it’s SO worth it.

This sauce also keeps FOREVER (if it’s not inhaled with Turkey Dinner that is)!!!!  I’ve eaten it in March with roast chicken when I found it hanging out in the back of the fridge!  (I probably should have chucked it, but it smelled ok, and tasted as it should, so I went for it.  Clearly, it didn’t kill me, so it’s all good!  Right?).  It also tastes really good in sandwiches with ham, turkey (duh) or chicken, and even combines well with Italian sausages and meatballs.  Heck, I eat it off the spoon from time to time.

Now, you may be wondering why I’m sharing this recipe now, rather than next week on actual Turkey Day weekend.  Well, for one thing, Mum always makes all her sauces (except the Madeira Turkey gravy) the week before just so the weekend isn’t even more bat-sh*t crazy for her, but for another, I figured what’s the point in sharing the recipe AFTER folks have already gotten their cranberry sauce ingredients and when it’s too late to maybe change their minds?  And for those of you who would normally go for canned cranberry sauce, perhaps this post will convince you to jazz up your Turkey Day dinner a bit and give something different a shot.  (Oh yea…and it’s the only time I’ll have to post a recipe BEFORE the Turkey Festivities begin next weekend.)

Regardless of the reason, here I am, sharing a Paleo-ish version of my Mum’s/Gourmet’s deliciously decadent, Sour Cherry Cranberry sauce with Caramelized Shallots!

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Now…for those of you looking for a completely Paleo cranberry sauce, unfortunately, since you’re actually making caramel in this recipe, you’re going to have a tough time substituting the sugar for a Paleo sweetener.  If it helps, a single serving of this sauce won’t contain THAT much sugar, and it definitely contains less than store-bought cranberry sauces.

Now, time for some prep tips:

• Firstly, I would warn you, keep your head away from the pot when you add the vinegar to the caramel.  You may think that this is to prevent the caramel from splashing all over your face.  This is definitely a concern.   But really, it’s so that your sinuses and tear ducts don’t get overloaded with the pure sourness of the white wine vinegar boiling off in those very first seconds after adding it to the pot.
• Secondly, and relatedly, wear your contacts/swimming goggles with the shallots.  Some of them can be more potent than a regular cooking onion.  Peeling those little buggers with your favourite razor-sharp paring knife through a veil of tears is not easy on the fingers.  True story.
• Also, if the shallot cloves are bigger than an inch in diameter, I recommend cutting them into halves.  This works with the recipe as long as you cut the shallots from the North pole to the South pole and keep the root in tact in each section.
• Finally, if you’re not sure where to go for dried sour cherries, your best bet is “the store that has everything” at the St. Lawrence market (if you’re in TO).  If not, you could try a bulk barn (or similar type store), or a health food store.  Unfortunately, they can be hard to find.  I didn’t find any here in MTL this year, so I had to make the recipe with dried black cherries.  It’s almost as good with black cherries, and definitely better after I added another 1/4 cup of cranberries and cut back on the sugar by 1 tbsp to get the tart-to-sweet ratio as close as possible to the original recipe.

Ok…that’s about it folks.  Fingers crossed for some beautiful sunny days next weekend.  This Foodographer is hoping to snag some pretty fall pics from northern-ish Ontario!  If I do, don’t be surprised if some of them show up along with my recipe fotos.  Oh yea…and maybe I’ll take some pics of the food…maybe.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to comment below or give me a shout via my Contact page.

Ciao for now!