Tangerine Cherry Cranberry Sauce

Yesterday evening, Laurie and I went shopping for a few items needed for the Spanish Omelette.  I thought I'd grab some cranberry sauce since I always seem to be without it this time of year.  With the recent article I read about micro-filtered honey that removes all pollen which is the only way to trace where the honey comes from (with the suspicion that much of it comes from China without disclosing that fact) and the vast number of products that have replaced sugar with high fructose corn syrup, I decided to check the ingredients of the cranberry sauce cans.  Sure enough, all the cans had high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar.

I was going to boycott and look for cranberry sauce elsewhere, but Laurie suggested that we try making it ourselves.  I grabbed a couple 12 oz packages of fresh cranberries and left.  When I got home, I did some research and found a recipe that sounded good called tangerine cherry cranberry sauce.  I already stock dried cherries so all I needed was tangerines (or oranges), cloves, and anise seeds.  The recipe calls for star of anise, but I couldn't find that at Winco so I settled on regular anise seed.  I used a cheese cloth to keep the seeds and cloves out of the sauce.

So, first let me say that I like cranberry sauce with turkey and on turkey sandwiches, but I'm not a big fan of it on its own.  After making this recipe, I am now a huge fan!  This is SO good that I couldn't stop snacking on it.  The kids loved it too.  So tangy and delicious and so easy to make.  I'm probably going to need to make another batch before Thanksgiving.  Here is the recipe:

1 (12-oz) bag fresh cranberries
1 cup small dried cherries (larger ones can be chopped a bit)
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated tangerine or orange zest
1 cup tangerine or orange juice, plus water as needed
1 whole star anise
3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick


There is a good write-up of the recipe and a video here:
http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2010/11/tangerine-cherry-cranberry-sauce-your.html

Here is the video for your convenience:

3 Cloves and Anise seed

It required 4 of these little "cuties" to supply enough juice and zest

All ingredients added

All ingredients stirred

Simmering

Finished product - my mouth is watering just looking at it

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November 2012 Update:   After making this recipe again this year, I would propose a change.  From now on I will only add 1/2 cup of dried cherries and use juice and zest from 3 tangerines.  Make up the remaining 1 cup of liquid with water.