Want to make a gift for a friend but not sure what to make. Try this Cabernet Cranberry and Blueberry Sauce. A savory jam or topping or relish, all are fabulous. Great as an appetizer or a side dish, you might not be able to give it away!
It’s that time of year when you want to make something to let your friends know how much you appreciate them. So this week I am going to post some recipes that I will be giving to friends over the holidays. The first is this relish/sauce.
While I love the cranberry relish that we have for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I wanted to try something new. However, my family would not let me deviate from our family favorite. When I found this recipe, I decided I needed to make it in addition to my tried and true recipe, two is always better than one! This is completely different from my regular relish, which is thick and tart. It’s more like a savory jam. I made it on Tuesday and it was so delicious that I put a pretty good dent in it by the time Thanksgiving rolled around.
The flavor of the cabernet and the blueberries make this completely different and awesome. I was able to use some of the frozen blueberries we had picked this summer from Eagles Nest Berry Farm, which might be what made it so tasty. However, I think it is the wine. I’ve used a Petite, and Zinfindale along with a Cabernet. Use a wine that you would enjoy drinking.
So far, I have mixed it with cottage cheese and yogurt for breakfast and put it on left-over yeast rolls. You can’t go wrong serving it as an appetizer on some goat cheese. It is so delicious that I am going to make a large batch and give them to special friends for Christmas. Even though my group still liked the old relish for Thanksgiving, they all agreed this was a keeper.
So if your crew will allow something different for Christmas dinner, try this out on them. I think it would be good over ice cream, or as a sauce for pork tenderloin. I would love to hear what interesting ways you have found to enjoy it.
Cabernet Cranberry and Blueberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 8 ounces fresh cranberries
- 1 ½ cups frozen blueberries
- 1 cup cabernet sauvigon
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a medium to large kettle, and bring to a rolling boil, stirring intermittently. Make sure the kettle has room for the sauce to increase in volume. The juices from the berries release and as the mixture boils rapidly, it will foam and a too-small pot will easily overflow.
- Reduce heat to low and allow the sauce to simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes, or until reduced and thickened slightly, and most of the cranberries have burst. Sauce will thicken more as it cools.
- Transfer to heat-safe jars or containers with lids. Allow sauce to cool at room temperature before refrigerating. Sauce will keep airtight in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks. Or in the alternative can it to make it last even longer.
Barbara’s Tips + Notes
- Makes five 4 oz jars.
Nutrition
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This is a simple, elegant recipe, thank you Barbara! Inspired to make it as last minute Christmas gifts since I’ve been hoarding blueberries from Eagle’s Nest farm since August. In addition to doubling the receipe, I made a couple alterations based on my own taste bude: used 1 cup more blueberries (esp after picking out the deflated fresh cranberries and twigs!) but kept the sugar amount as called for, added 1 tsp vanilla and instead of ground, threw 2 whole cloves into the pot. Also divided the cabernet bottle 2/3rds for the sauce, 1./3 for my glass 🙂 After 30 min cooking and 30 min resting, it hadn’t thickened much — presumably since I’d kept the lid on during cooking, nor was it reduced enough, so I brought it back to a simmer for about 15 more minutes without the lid. Can’t wait to try this on our Chrismas Eve pork tenderloin, as well as with the bird on Christmas Day dinner. Used Simply Naked cabernet (unoaked) – next time might upgrade the quality a little more. Cheers!
PS just taste tested both the original versus my version – yours is better! The recipe needs the ground cloves, even tho that’s a flavor I don’t usually love. I’d keep the vanilla tho, adds a subtle complexity! DEEEElightful over honey fig goat cheese too….
So glad you experimented with it, you do need to leave the lid off while cooking but it will still end up a little runnier than jam. I’m going to try adding vanilla next time.
Thank you so much, I just started and it is great to get some feedback.
Barbara, my friend, Dana made me some of this sauce as gift. Very good and she told me about your site. Looks fun, can’t wait to follow it.
Not only did Dana do a fantastic job with my website, but I love that she is spreading the word. I hope you enjoy it.