May I humbly suggest that cranberry sauce should be replaced with cranberry chutney at your next holiday meal? You don’t even need to wait for a special occasion meal! I am devoted to having sweet condiments with my savory food, so I make and eat a lot of fruit chutney. In my freezer, right now, I have homemade rhubarb chutney, mango chutney and cranberry chutney. Usually, I would have plum chutney as well, but my farmshare did not send me a single plum this year and I obviously did not get to travel home to Gabriola Island this year to do my annual wild plum harvest and chutney making. Chutney is truly simple to make and a good way to use up and preserve fruit if you are lucky enough to have more than you can eat fresh. I eat chutney with …

• turnip and scallion pakora
• spicy chickpea pancakes,
• aloo chat inspired roasted potatoes
• butternut squash chaat
• bhel puri
• hamburgers
• tourtière
• wild mushroom cobbler
• curried turkey pot pie
• tandoori salmon
• roasted chicken or turkey
• braised brisket
• pork chops
• duck liver pate or with cheese on crackers,

I have another recipe for Orange Cranberry Chutney, hidden in an old post about Thanksgiving. That one is good, but this one is better!

THE BEST CRANBERRY CHUTNEY

• 1 pound of fresh cranberries, washed and left whole
• 1 cup minced red onion (1 med onion)
• 1 cup raisins or currants
• 4 oz dried santa rosa plums chopped (I have also made it with dried prune plums and it was good)
• 2 cups brown sugar (muscavado sugar if you can get it)
• 1 and 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar (white wine vinegar would work too)
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon dry ginger
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• 1 star anise
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon whole mustard seed
• 1 dry arbol chili

1. Pile everything into a nonreactive pot and let it simmer down until the cranberries burst and the whole mixture gets thick.
2. Put it in a glass jar or tupperware and let it cool before sealing it putting it in your in your fridge or freezer. It is delicious right away but will taste even better after it has blended for a couple of weeks.