Fig and Port Cranberry Sauce
If you’ve been looking for a cranberry sauce recipe to make this year for Thanksgiving, look no further. This Fig and Port Cranberry Sauce is the perfect combination of tart and sweet with a hint of warmth from the port, rosemary, and balsamic vinegar.
Thanksgiving prep is in full swing around the house these days. Our new dining room table is getting delivered tomorrow, we placed the order for our turkeys, and we finally got the guest room all cleaned up and ready to go. As for the menu planning, I think I’ve finalized the meal portion of the day, but the desserts are all still up in the air.
I’m planning to make some recipes that I know and love, like this <a href="http://www.beantownbaker.com/2008/11/depths-of-fall-butternut-squash-pie.html"Depths of Fall Pie and these Pecan Pie Cookies. Hubby’s mom is making her famous Chocolate Mousse and her boyfriend is making his famous pumpkin pie. I’ll probably throw in a new recipe to round out the dessert table, but I haven’t had time to play around in the kitchen to figure out what just yet.
There were a few cranberry recipes I wanted to test out. I love this Classic Cranberry Sauce recipe and I plan to make it, but I also wanted to make something with a bit more pizzazz. A dressed up cranberry sauce. This was the first candidate on my list of recipes and I stopped testing recipes after one bite of this cranberry sauce. It’s sweet and tart with chunks of fig and cranberry dancing around together. The rosemary and port provide a subtle warmth that round out the sauce nicely. I left mine fairly chunky, but you could also puree it for a smoother consistency.
One Year Ago: Easy Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet
Two Years Ago: Berry Cream Cheese and Shrimp Fritters with Blackberry Dipping Sauce
Three Years Ago: Cranberry White Chocolate Cupcakes
Four Years Ago: Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins and Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Bars
Five Years Ago: Pumpkin Pie Dip
Six Years Ago: Goat Cheese, Pesto, Sundried Tomato sandwich and Goat Cheese Stuffed Salmon
Fig and Port Cranberry Sauce
This Fig and Port Cranberry Sauce is the perfect combination of tart and sweet with a hint of warmth from the port, rosemary, and balsamic vinegar.
Yield: ~3 1/2 cups
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups ruby Port
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
8 dried black Mission figs, stemmed, chopped
1 6-inch-long sprig fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients except the cranberries and white sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until brown sugar dissolves.
Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the rosemary stems. Stir in cranberries and sugar.
Cook on medium until cranberries burst, stirring occasionally. Once liquid has reduced slightly, remove from heat and cool. Refrigerate until ready to serve (may be made up to a week in advance).
Recipe from Bon Appetit
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
What a great idea to freeze the excess chipotle chiles! Much less waste, and perfectly portioned. I do freeze buttermilk in 1/2 cup increments because I never use up the whole carton when I buy it.
beantownbaker — November 8th, 2013 @ 2:07 pm
Oh I’ve never frozen dairy before. Does it defrost well?
It does get a little curdled looking but I only use it for baking cakes. I haven’t noticed any discernible difference in texture or flavor in the resulting cakes.
beantownbaker — November 10th, 2013 @ 2:03 pm
Good to know. I’ll have to keep that in mind because I never use the whole carton either. I tend to just make my own buttermilk with milk + vinegar but sometimes I buy it then struggle with how to use it all.
i like adding in a not traveling to the rotation! might have to employ that one here 🙂
beantownbaker — November 10th, 2013 @ 2:04 pm
It was seriously one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. We’ve done a variety of things on our holidays where we don’t travel.
Hey Jen! I JUST made these potatoes and posted them today. Alton Brown knows his stuff right? Then I saw your picture on pinterest and was like hm I wonder if that’s the same recipe…? Great minds think alike! I added green onions and bacon to mine, because, well, bacon makes everything better. Right? 🙂 Great post! http://thefoodcharlatan.com/2013/11/22/chipotle-sweet-potatoes-with-bacon/
beantownbaker — November 24th, 2013 @ 6:01 pm
Bacon definitely makes everything better. Great minds do think alike!
I am gonna try this on coming weekend and hope its looks at least nice in the texture and in color,because i am not so good in cooking:). Anyway Looking forward to more of your yummy dishes mate!!!