Ban the Can!

What do I have against canned cranberry sauce?  Well, in this case, I think a picture really is worth a thousand words. 

Yep, there it is, in all its jiggly, slimy glory.  Lovely ribbed can shape and all.  Why are our standards so low when it comes to cranberry sauce?  I mean, would you eat anything else shaped like a tin can?  And considering how easy it is to make your own, there are really no excuses for substituting such a disgrace.  You can even make it a day or two in advance so that it’s ready to serve on the big day without having to fuss over it.  Impress your guests this year and serve a bowl of delicious, beautiful, homemade cranberry sauce. 

You’ll only need a few ingredients.

3 cups fresh cranberries
¾ - 1 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons orange zest
⅔ cup orange juice
⅓ cup water  
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon cinnamon

First thing you need to do is zest an orange.  If you have a microplane, it’ll make short work of that task for you. 

If you don’t have one, Seeley showed how to do it with a knife here.  The other advantage to using a microplane is that you can take off only the very outside layer, not getting any of the pith (white part). 

Don’t forget to get the zest off of the back of your grater, though. 

Cut your bald orange in half and juice it along with a second orange. 

Put the juice in a measuring cup and fill the rest of the way to the 1 cup line with water. 

Now, set that aside and give your cranberries a nice rinse, checking the berries over in the process. 

Pour orange juice and sugar into a pan over medium heat.  ¾ of a cup of sugar will make a sauce that’s slightly on the tart side.  If you prefer yours to be sweeter, add a cup.  Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Throw in the orange zest.

Stir it in and pour in the cranberries. 

Bring the mixture just to a boil.  You’ll hear little hisses and pops as the berries heat up.  It’s just their skins beginning to split open, like this:

When you’ve reached a boil, reduce the heat to low and cover tightly.  Allow it to simmer for 20 – 25 minutes, stirring frequently along the way.  After about 10 minutes, you’ll see the berries have really started to break down and the mixture begins to thicken. 

Continue to stir the mixture frequently, keeping it covered in between.  Once everything has really broken down and the mixture becomes about the consistency of lumpy ketchup, (ok, that doesn't sound very appetizing, but you get the idea) turn off the heat and add the vanilla. 

Stir well then place the lid on and just leave it for 20 minutes.  When you return, you have fabulous orange cranberry sauce.  How easy was that? 

You don’t like your cranberry sauce lumpy?  Simple.  Just press the mixture through a sieve using a spoon or rubber spatula.

Is that cool or what?  A delicious, smooth cranberry sauce that really does have the consistency of a sauce.  No jiggle factor, no can shape, and no artificial anything.  Ban the can this year.  You’ll be glad you did.   

*Don’t use your cranberry sauce just for Thanksgiving dinner.  Add it to yogurt, spread it on toast, glaze chicken or pork, or even use it as a filling in a cake.       
 

the morning after

Migas is apparently one hell of a hang over food. It's quite handy too that it's made from a bunch of leftovers.

It apparently originated in Austin, Texas, but has spread to the surrounding area. And it's so fabulous a meal that I've decided to spread it even further. And while it is a handy morning after breakfast, it's also good to have for dinner before the drinks begin.

Migas typically starts with day-old tortillas, chopped and fried in oil, but if you don't have fresh tortillas, or if you're really not in the mood to deal with the extra step, tortilla chips (particularly the broken up ones in the bottom of the bag) will work just fine. Just as leftover pico de gallo will work in place of spending time chopping onions and jalapenos first thing in the morning.

Holy hell, I am lazy.

Sometimes I even surprise myself.

Migas

What You Need

• 2-3 fresh corn tortillas
• 2 tbsp peanut oil (or some other oil with a high smoke point)

OR

• 1/2 c broken pieces of tortilla chips

-

• 1/2 jalapeno
• 1/4 onion
• 1/2 tomato
• cilantro

OR

• about 1/2 c of pico de gallo

-

• 4 eggs
• 1/4 c milk or cream
• bacon, ham or sausage
• 1/2 c cheddar or monteray jack cheese
• more cilantro if you have it

What you Gotta Do

If you're feeling up to the extra step, and have fresh tortillas handy, chop them into pieces. Shape isn't that big a deal, but they should be relatively small. Bite sized. 

In a shallow pan over medium high, heat the oil until is starts to shimmer, then sprinkle in the tortillas. Fry them until they're golden then fish them out of the oil and set them on some paper towels while you do more stuff.

If you're using fresh veggies, now's the time to chop them. Diced fairly small. If you've got pico de gallo (or salsa, in a pinch) leftover from last night's festiviites, you can hold onto it for now.

Drain most of the oil from the pan. Or, drain it all and replace it with bacon fat.

If you're using fresh veggies, you're going to want to sautee them in the fat for a bit. Just enough to take the crunch off.

While those are cooking crack the eggs into a bowl and add the milk or cream.

Beat them together until they're starting to get a little foamy. Or, until you decide you're too tired to keep beating them, which ever comes first. Depends on how hungover lazy you are.

Pour the eggs into the pan with the veggies. If you don't already have veggies in the pan, add them now.

The reason you don't have to pre cook the pico: pico de gallo uses a combination of lime juice (acid) and salt to break down the cell walls of the veggies. This is a similar process to what cooking does. Same thing happens in ceviche, which I do not recommend for breakfast while hung over.

Add the meat now too. I had ham, but whatever your fave breakfast meat is will work.

Stir this all around until the egg is mostly set.

Sprinkle on the tortillas.

And then the cheese.

Turn the heat off and cover the pan so the cheese will melt.

While the cheese is melting, warm up the rest of the tortillas (I layer mine with damp paper towels and nuke em for a few seconds), and mash the leftover beans. This step is of course optional, but a pretty typical way to serve migas.

Yes, I had tortillas, and yes I still used the chips. I did say "if you're really not in the mood to deal with the extra step." I wasn't in the mood. Well...

Serve your migas with warmed tortiallas and beans, and some seriously strong coffee.

What's your favourite morning after food?