Snap, crackle, cranberries

My Mum and Dad arrived yesterday for a visit. There really is nothing like a visit from the parents, they always come laden with goods ready to clean, garden and cuddle the baby. It feels like a mini holiday for me and they have a good time to boot. For this visit they arrived with 2kg of fresh cranberries. 

For readers from America this may not seem too exciting but for us here in New Zealand  fresh cranberries are a rare find. Until mum and dad arrived i had never even seen a cranberry let alone tasted a fresh one. First bit of knowledge i gleaned was you don't eat raw cranberries. The better half said it was like eating brake fluid. Hmmm appealing.

Upon cooking however that all changes and the fruity tartness comes through. First it was a batch of muffins which were delicious and then as our roast pork cooked in the oven i thought of cranberry sauce. I have had this in a jar before but never made any, so game on and let the recipe search began.

There was thousands of recipes to be found online so i settled on a mix of a few simple ones. I used 1 cup of orange juice and dissolved 1 cup of sugar in it.

Then i threw in 340grams of fresh cranberries

Then they started to pop, pop, pop! I almost giggled with glee, oh so maybe i did a little. I have never heard anything like this before. It was like the fruit equivalent of rice bubbles, fantastic!

Then bubble, bubble for 10mins

Then beautiful, glossy cranberry sauce to go with my pork. Isn't it stunning? Who wouldn't want to eat this. It was pretty tasty too but i couldn't help but think it was sweet enough for my morning toast. Yum.

I have over 1kg of cranberries left to use, hmmm what to make next. Fruit crumble or jelly is on my mind.

Take care people xx