Hot Hot Hot Cranberry Sauce

I love fresh cranberry sauce, and don't get me wrong, I love the jellied kind in the can, too! Cranberry sauce is the one thing I can fool around with the recipe on the holidays to change things up! So this time I looked and found one made with cherries and cranberries. It sounded very good. Like a jam recipe I used to make, except this had the addition of ginger. I left out the ginger! Then there was one with jalapeno's that looked good to me. I love the combination of sweet and hot. So why not? I played around with the recipe and ended up not using ginger and adding a half of a jalapeno. It turned out to be the hottest jalapeno I ever tasted. Yeah, you guessed it. I rubbed my eyes. I scratched my nose. All with jalapeno hands! OUCH! This would have killed Grandma for sure. Good thing we warned her ahead of time!  This time anyway :)

At first I thought, this is pretty disgusting tasting, the amaretto together with the really hot jalapeno, but I kept tasting it, and it grew on me. The big kid liked but it was too hot, the picky one didn't even try.  The Griller can't have cranberries but I know if he could he would have liked it but with a lot less heat. Wouldn't even offer it to Grandma. So I packed it up to schlep it to our friend's Thanksgiving feast! Too hot for most, but whoever had it, found it somewhat addicting. Not sure why, but we ended up finished the whole batch. I'll make it again. But I would check the jalapeno first!




Cherry-Cranberry Sauce
Source: original recipe SELF - November 2010 by Jennifer Iserloh
adapted There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 bag (15 ounces) frozen or fresh cranberries
1 bag (10 ounces) frozen cherries
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup orange juice
some fresh orange or clementine slices
1/4 cup amaretto (next time I'll try it without it!)
1/2 -1 jalapeno, minced (depending how much heat you like!) I used a frozen jalapeno and grated it with a microplane

Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook cinnamon, stirring, about a minute. If using, carefully add the amaretto and cook until liquid thickens and reduces by half, about 1 minute. Add cranberries, cherries, sugar, 1/4 cup water and a 1/2 cup orange juice. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, add some clementine slices and simmer until cranberries break apart and sauce thickens, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 week.