BACK

Basics
nov 14, 2020

Homemade Cranberry-Apricot Sauce

There’s a chill in our San Francisco air this week. We were overjoyed to see sheets of rain falling outside our windows, breaking the long dry spell. It finally feels like the right time to think about Thanksgiving and the meal our family will share.
We’ll definitely spatchcock a turkey. Mashed potatoes are non-negotiable. Beyond that, we’re pondering new sides and desserts, always willing to shake up our menu a little each year. One more mainstay on our Thanksgiving table is this Cranberry-Apricot Sauce. Sweet and tart, it’s made slightly sophisticated by the addition of dry sherry. It doesn’t taste boozy at all, just more complex than plain cranberry sauce. It’s really great on biscuits or scones or pork roast, too. Please let us know if you try it.
Many of the updated vegetable dishes we’re contemplating this year come from Nik Sharma’s excellent new book, The Flavor Equation. Nik is our featured guest for this month’s Salt+Spine Cookbook Club Dinner Party, when he’ll cook along with guests, making 2 of the tempting Thanksgiving-worthy dishes we’ve got our eyes on: Baked Sweet Potatoes with Maple Crème Fraîche and Green Beans with Preserved Lemons + Crème Fraîche. We hope you’ll join us for the fun.
If you have any questions or feedback, please email us. We’d love to see and hear what you’re planning to cook for your Thanksgiving meal.
Recipe

Cranberry Apricot Sauce

Author Jen Nurse

This cranberry sauce has a balance of sweet and tart flavors that perfectly complement a Thanksgiving turkey. It's also very good with roast chicken or pork. If you can get your hands on Royal Blenheim dried apricots, they will repay you in flavor for their sometimes steep purchase price.

Adapted from: Cooking Lite magazine, 1999
Yield   About 3 cups

Ingredients

3 oz. (½ cup) thinly sliced dried apricots

¼ cup dry sherry or orange juice

¾ cup water

½ cup sugar

¼ cup honey

12 oz. (3 cups) fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions

Combine the apricots and sherry (or orange juice) in a small bowl; cover and let stand for at least 4 hours, and as long as overnight.
Add the soaked apricots and all remaining ingredients to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. I prefer to use a saucepan with tall sides, as the cranberries sometimes splatter as they pop from the heat. Once the liquid reaches a full boil, reduce the heat to maintain a lively simmer. Cook until all of the cranberries have popped and the sauce is garnet-hued and glossy, visibly thickened. This should take 10 to 12 minutes.
Spoon the cranberry sauce directly into a serving bowl, cover and chill. It will thicken significantly as it cools. The sauce can be made up to a week in advance; store it airtight in the refrigerator, and serve it cold or at room temperature.