Tag Archives: cranberries

Roast Chicken with Garlic, Lime and Cranberry Onions

25 Oct

This is delicious, but it’s not a dieter’s delight. The onions and cranberries soak up all the tasty chicken fat that you would normally discard (or save for another use) after roasting the chicken.

Ingredients:

  • 8 to 12 chicken pieces (any combination)
  • 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • 2 Tbs. fresh minced garlic
  • 1 tsp. paprika
  • 1 tsp. kosher salt (ignore if using kosher chicken)
  • ½ tsp. fresh ground pepper or to taste
  • ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
  • ½ tsp. dried thyme
  • 4 cups chopped onions
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • ¼ cup lime juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread the onions over the bottom of an oiled roasting pan.

Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl and rub with the olive oil, then the garlic. Combine the spices and rub all over the chicken pieces. Arrange the chicken skin side up over the onions and roast, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the roasting pan and stir the cranberries into the onions. Place the chicken back in the pan, skin side down and roast for 10 minutes more.

Turn the chicken over again, drizzle with the lime juice, and roast for 20 to 30 minutes more, until the top is nicely browned.

Serve immediately with the chicken arranged on a serving platter on a bed of the cranberry onions.

Serves 6 to 8

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Cranberry Upside Down Cake

20 Oct

cranberry upside down cake 2

I got this recipe from the Detroit Free Press. It’s a nice dessert for this time of year, when fresh cranberries are plentiful. And it’s not too soon to start planning for Thanksgiving. This would be a great addition to your feast, or a nice coffee cake to serve at breakfast the day after. It seems like there’s a lot of sugar in it, but it’s really not all that sweet because the cranberries are so tart.

Ingredients:

12 oz. cranberries, fresh or frozen
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan; set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together cranberries, brown sugar, juice, zest and cinnamon. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a handheld electric beater), beat eggs on high speed until pale, about 2 minutes. Cascade in granulated sugar; beat, 1 minute.

Switch the speed to medium and beat in butter, sour cream, vanilla and salt. Sprinkle in flour. Mix on low, just until combined.

Scrape cranberry mixture into prepared pan. Cover with cake batter. Bake until fruit bubbles at the edges and a toothpick poked in the cake portion comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on a rack for 5 minutes. Invert a serving plate onto cake pan. Slip on oven mitts. Hold plate and pan firmly together and flip so that plate holds cake, fruit side up. Give the pan a sharp rap to loosen any sluggish berries. Lift off pan.

Serve warm or room temperature.

Serves 8

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Wild Rice with Caramelized Onions and Cranberries

18 Nov

wild rice pilaf with caramelized onionsLast Sunday’s Detroit Free Press had a holiday food section called Feast, consisting of recipes from readers — including yours truly!

The Freep ran a contest of sorts, inviting readers to submit recipes via their Facebook page in various categories. I sent this one, and they printed my recipe in the Side Dishes category.

My prize was an invitation to the Freep’s Taste Fest at the Great Lakes Culinary Center, an interesting spot I’d read much about but never seen.

We enjoyed lots of yummy treats, including a bunch of tasty organic grain- and legume-based salads from a company called Gabby’s Garden. (Locals: they’re carried at Hiller’s, Westborn, Randazzo’s, Market Fresh, Papa Joe’s, Holiday and other local fancy grocery stores.) There was also a nice upgraded green bean casserole, with haricots verts, wild mushroom gravy and crispy shallots.

My winning recipe is one I got from the Ocean Spray Cranberries people, but they note that they got it from Vegetarian Times, November 1998.  I’ve adapted it slightly. It’s excellent as a side-dish for Thanksgiving or any other fall festive occasion.

Except for caramelizing the onions, it’s extremely easy. Caramelizing the onions isn’t difficult, I just find it takes a really long time – sometimes nearly an hour – to do it properly so that the onions are soft and completely golden brown. The recipes that tell you it takes 10 or 15 minutes are lying! It’s worth being patient because you will get soft, super-sweet onions! If you have more than you need you can save the extra to use on salads, burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc.(you may even want to consider making extra just to have leftovers!)

Before I get to the recipe, I want to let you know that the blog is taking a vacation for a couple of weeks, as I spend some time with my daughter following the birth this week of her daughter!

Ingredients:

2 cups vegetable broth
½ cup brown rice, uncooked
½ cup wild rice, uncooked
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
3 medium onions, sliced into thin wedges
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 cup dried cranberries
½ tsp. finely grated orange zest

Directions:

Combine broth and brown and wild rice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, about 45 minutes. (Or cook the rice and broth mixture in the microwave as you would cook brown rice; I do it at high for 6 minutes and then at medium for 40 minutes.)

While the rice is cooking, heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and brown sugar. When the onions start to soften, turn heat to low and cover the pan for about 5 minutes. Then uncover the pan and continue to cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until all the liquid is absorbed and the onions turn a caramel cover; this will take at least 20 minutes, maybe as much as an hour.

Stir in the cranberries. Cover and cook over low heat until the cranberries swell, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the rice to a large serving bowl. Gently fold in the cranberry mixture and the orange zest.

Serves 6

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Cranberry Nut Bread

14 Mar

ImageI’ve been getting requests for Passover recipes. This isn’t one. The problem is I like to include photos with my recipes, and I won’t be making any Passover recipes for another 10 days when my kitchen is ready for the holiday! I’ll look for year-round recipes that also work for Passover to post soon, and once my prep is complete, I’ll post some of my fave Passover dishes.

Meanwhile, look in your freezer — maybe, like I did, you have a package of fresh cranberries stashed there. This would be a great way to use them up before the holiday!

This recipe came from one of our neighbors – I can’t remember which one –  in the graduate student apartments at Temple University where we lived from 1972 to 1976. I’ve tried other cranberry nut breads, but none has been as good as this one! Try it for breakfast with cream cheese.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups fresh cranberries, cut in half or coarsely chopped (a food processor is a good idea!)
¼ cup vegetable shortening
¾ cup orange juice
1 Tbs. grated orange zest
1 egg, well beaten
½ cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the dry ingredients. Cut in the shortening until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. Combine the orange juice, orange zest and egg. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour the orange juice mixture in. Stir lightly to combine. Stir in the cranberries and nuts. Spoon into a greased loaf pan and pull the batter away from the center to the four corners (this will keep it from getting too high in the center). Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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