Pear-Honey-Orange Cranberry Sauce

[eelo]

Pear Honey Cranberry Sauce (original recipe)

½ cup sugar
½ cup water
2 medium pears, peeled and diced
1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries
1 cup honey
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Combine the sugar and water in a large saucepan; stir well. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in diced pear and cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add cranberries and honey; cook 5 to 7 minutes or until cranberry skins pop. Remove from heat and stir in grated lemon rind and lemon juice. Cover and chill thoroughly. Yield: 4 cups


My modifications, it's a lot easier and it adds mandarin oranges, yummy:

1. Use canned pears; get the kind in juice or in light syrup (heavy syrup is a pain), drain thoroughly, and add them in at the point where you like. The longer the pears sit in the cranberry stuff, the redder they’ll get (absorbing color). If you add them later, they’ll absorb less color.

2. It’s okay to use dried lemon peel; just use half the amount. Also, RealLemon (bottled lemon juice) works just fine.

3. After the cranberry mix has cooled and started to gel, add in one can of mandarin oranges (drained).

4. Be prepared for it to take longer than 5-7 minutes for all the cranberry skins to pop.

5. If you find the mixture creating froth in the saucepan, turn the heat down and try to skim off all the bubbles. They look icky.

[Gunslinger]

Singing outloud, "Did you ever know that you're my HEEEEEEERO"

"And everything I would like to BEEEE, I could fly HIIIIGHER than an EAAAAGLE.....cause you are the wind beneath MYYYYY wings"

Err...I mean...thanks

[eelo]

Originally Posted by DavisSarahK Singing outloud, "Did you ever know that you're my HEEEEEEERO" "And everything I would like to BEEEE, I could fly HIIIIGHER than an EAAAAGLE.....cause you are the wind beneath MYYYYY wings" Err...I mean...thanks

I am SO channeling Bette Midler right now.

[Gunslinger]

Originally Posted by eelo I am SO channeling Bette Midler right now.

As you should be!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GlitterCrotch]

Eelo, that is amazing.

[Germanchick]

That sounds delicious! What do you usually serve that with?

[GlitterCrotch]

Originally Posted by Germanchick That sounds delicious! What do you usually serve that with?

I would serve that with roasted chicken/duck/turkey or even ham. Oh and stuffing.

[Songtan Sally]

Damn eelo! I drooled just reading the name of the recipe!! God, does that sound fantastic!

[eelo]

Originally Posted by Germanchick That sounds delicious! What do you usually serve that with?

It's a side dish, really good with roasted poultry. It looks amazing served in a white bowl. It's almost like a chutney. My husband also uses it as a relish on turkey sandwiches. Our German foreign exchange student was absolutely fascinated with this (that boy was fascinated with everything that came out of my kitchen, he was a doll).

The original recipe called for boiling fresh pears to soften them up, but I said screw that..... the canned pears work just fine, but it really is best to get the ones in light syrup.

I have to give credit where credit is due: the addition of the mandarin oranges was actually LittleBit84's idea. Every year each of my kids would make something for part of the Thanksgiving dinner and when she was about 12 or 13, she looked at this recipe and said "Hey, would this be good if we added a can of mandarin oranges?" Mind you, she doesn't eat cranberry sauce at all, she just thought it would be interesting with the oranges. It smells really, really good when it's cooking, too.

I should also put up the recipe for the Oreo Marble Swirl cheesecake that another of my daughters makes for holiday dinners. That's a killer, too.

[Midge.T]

This sounds so yummy. So so so yummy. I'm totally making it for Turkey day and bringing it to the MIL's.

Thanks for sharing it.