Chipotle Cranberry Sauce

I’m doing some early prep for Thanksgiving and today I whipped up the cranberry sauce. This recipe comes from the November ‘09 edition of Bon Appetit magazine. Greg got a subscription through Wyatt’s magazine sales, and now we’re never gonna want to eat plain old food again… Well, we never want to eat “old” food, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, homemade cranberry sauce is about the easiest thing to make when preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Except for having to boil/soften the chiles, this recipe took 10 minutes.

The flavor is sweet/hot and I can’t wait to taste it again after it sits awhile.

CHIPOTLE CRANBERRY SAUCE

Ingredients

• 2 dried chipotle chiles*
• 1 12-ounce package fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 small garlic clove, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon (generous) ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon (generous) ground cumin

• *Can be found at specialty foods stores, natural foods stores, and Latin markets.

Preparation

• Place chiles in medium saucepan filled with water; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until chiles are tender, adding more water if needed to keep chiles submerged, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on dryness of chiles. Drain.

• Combine softened chipotles, cranberries, sugar, and lemon juice in heavy medium saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Continue cooking until cranberries begin to pop, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, cinnamon, and cumin. Simmer until sauce thickens slightly and flavors meld, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Cool.

• Remove chipotles. Stem and seed.  Mince chiles and return to cranberry sauce (my chiles pretty much fell apart during all the stirring. I fished out the pieces and didn’t bother mincing and putting them back in); stir to distribute. Cover and chill.

• DO AHEAD Can be made 1 week ahead. Keep chilled.