Monica Puri Bangia lives in Maplewood, NJ and was born in Delhi, famous for its Northern Indian cuisine. She worked in her family’s deli/restaurant for many years and studied at the French Culinary Institute in NYC. Puri Bangia writes that “food is where my happiness and interest lies. I love to entertain and feed people. I love to see their look when they eat the food I have prepared with lots of love and care.” She imparts that love through her blog Sharing Plate.
If you listen to anything I say, please, please don’t buy the already made cranberry sauce. It is so simple to make and the homemade version is extremely delicious.
Every year I buy fresh cranberries and every year while I cook them, I think why do people buy the canned or the bottled version. It is one of the simplest things to make in the Thanksgiving dinner.
I have made all sorts in the past few years—including a cranberry relish, salsa. This year, I wanted to come up with something on my own and not follow a recipe.
Since I have been on an apple and orange kick, those are the flavors I used. I cooked a bag of fresh cranberries with apple cider and orange juice. I added orange zest, a cinnamon stick and some cloves. I cooked the berries till they popped and became soft—it takes all of 20 minutes and you can make this in advance and freeze it until the dinner. I finished it off with maple syrup. The apple chunks in the sauce are delicious and add great texture.
It was delicious. We had it on top of some pork chops (I have frozen the rest for Thanksgiving). Please make this instead of buying the canned version and if you do—let me know.
For Monica Puri Bangia’s Apple Orange Cranberry Sauce recipe, visit here.
