Very often live-in carers find themselves working over the holiday season, and in particular on Christmas Day. While it is great when family arrives with the meal all prepared, you may find that you are asked to prepare one or two things as well. This may include making the cranberry sauce for the turkey.
There is one thing that will make your cranberry sauce stand out from any sauce you or the family has tasted, and as any chef will tell you, you should never underestimate the importance of citrus fruit in cooking.
Now, if you have ever tasted a raw cranberry you will remember that it is extremely acidic and tart. This is why many people add a heap of sugar when making sauce. While a lot of sugar will soften the tartness, it does very little to enhance the flavour of the cranberries.
The best ingredient to add to your cranberry sauce is orange zest. This will give the sauce a better depth of colour, adding orange to the rich redness of the cranberries.
Orange zest may be bright in colour but it is not acidic and goes a long way to bringing out the very best of the cranberries.
The easiest way to remove the zest is with an orange zester, although not every household has one of these.
The other way to get the zest is to use a grater. Rotate the fruit so that you only grate the colourful zest and not the white pith, which is somewhat bitter.
Because the zest is delicate, if you add it to hot foods, you will destroy the flavour so it is best to wait until the cranberry sauce is cool before adding it. Leave the sauce to stand for about 8 minutes and then add the zest.
The amount is up to you and depends on personal taste although a rule of thumb is that the zest of one orange will give you enough to flavour a 12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries.
There is no reason to buy bland, bottled cranberry sauce when it is so easy to make with just a few ingredients. Certainly adding orange zest to give your cranberry sauce an exciting flavour and a more colourful appearance.
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