Welcome to the very first day of 25 Days of Nourishing Traditions!
Onion-Cranberry Compote
Today’s recipe is Onion-Cranberry Compote, from page 293 of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
. There’s this cute little list of a suggested Thanksgiving dinner menu on page 392 that includes this compote, so I thought it would be a great one to start with on this Thanksgiving Eve! Sally says that you can prepare this recipe up to three days before you use it, so if you want to include it for tomorrow’s feast, go ahead and make it today!
. There’s this cute little list of a suggested Thanksgiving dinner menu on page 392 that includes this compote, so I thought it would be a great one to start with on this Thanksgiving Eve! Sally says that you can prepare this recipe up to three days before you use it, so if you want to include it for tomorrow’s feast, go ahead and make it today!
Click HERE to enter to win two copies of the book!
Ingredients:
- 2⁄3 cup yellow raisins
- 2⁄3 cup dark raisins
- 1 1⁄2 cups hot filtered water
- 2 pounds small white onions peeled
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3⁄4 cup white wine vinegar
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 3 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 2⁄3 cups fresh cranberries
Instructions
First, soak the raisins in water for 10 minutes. Um, I neglected to notice the part in the ingredient list about hot filtered water, so I just poured some regular water in a bowl and dumped in the raisins. Oh well. I don’t think I ruined it!
Then, begin sautéeing the onions in butter. Since the recipe didn’t specify if they were to be sliced, diced, or what — I assumed Sally didn’t mean just stick ’em in there whole — so I tried to thinly slice them. I have a crappy knife. They weren’t very thin. I might try for a chunky dice next time.
Woop, woop! Half a stick, baby.
Then, once the onions are “well-covered” in your butter, add in the white wine and the white wine vinegar, and let it come to a boil.
Now, dump in the raisins (plus that hot water you soaked them in, which I didn’t) plus the rest of the ingredients, except for the cranberries. Glad I noticed that part! The liquid in the pan should “just cover” the onions, so if it doesn’t, go ahead and add more water.
It’s time to let this simmer, covered, for a whole hour. It’ll start to smell really good! Stir it around occasionally.
Okay, it’s cranberry time! Add them in and let it simmer for 15-30 minutes until the liquid has thickened. Nothing says Thanksgiving like cranberries going “pop! pop!” over a stovetop! 🙂
Let it cool, and store in the refrigerator. Be sure to let it reach room temperature before serving with your turkey! Yum!
How did it go?
This was super easy. I mean before I saw this recipe, I had no idea what a “compote” even was, and I still managed to make it quite nicely! The only time-consuming part of preparing it was slicing up all those onions. And I had just about everything needed for this recipe already stocked in my cupboards, except the cranberries, which are of course really easy to find this time of year.
How We Liked It
As I’m writing this, it’s not yet Thanksgiving of course, so we haven’t tried this with a proper turkey yet. But we did taste it, and I did try a little with some roast chicken I had leftovers of, and holy wow!! I loved it! It’s tangy, yet surprisingly sweet enough to sub for standard cran sauce. I felt like such a little gourmet making it and I’m excited to show it off to our friends who we’re having Thanksgiving with! Pre-Hubs’ vote was that it should definitely be brought to our Turkey Day feast. I can’t wait for this to blow their canned cranberry glop out of the water! 😀
Alright! One down, 24 more to go! What do you think of this recipe? Would you include it in your Thanksgiving meal? Is anyone gonna make this today now that you’ve seen mine? You gotta let me know, that will make me so happy!
{This post is linked to Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop!}
Hello! Thanks for following me on Twitter 🙂 It’s nice to meet you. I’ve never been to your blog before! I really like this recipe. I wish I could make it for tomorrow but I am not responsible for bringing the cranberry sauce 😉
Hi Meagan! Yay, thanks for stopping by! Yeah I feel like I’m totally off the hook this year with my Thanksgiving contributions, especially since this was so easy! 😀
Just signed up for your newsletter. Already familiar with Sally Fallon, but don’t have the book.
Hey Kathy, thank you! That’s great! Make sure you put a comment on the giveaway post so you can enter to win! http://butterbeliever.com/2011/11/23/giveaway-enter-to-win-two-copies-of-nourishing-traditions/
Ok, you convinced me to make this one. I, like you, am not really familiar with compote, but I’m curious enough to give it a try!