Pomegranate Cranberry Sauce

The one produce item that seems in short supply here on the west coast is cranberries. Being a Massachusetts native, I love me some cranberry sauce, so this has been distressing. I've been searching for these things for a month now, since they are widely available on the east coast in late September. They finally appeared in my neighborhood grocery store this morning, much to my relief. They were a little banged up from their cross country journey, but they worked. I'm amazed that cranberries don't seem to be grown out here. Don't they have bogs in California?

Pomegranates, however, do seem to be particularly plentiful around here. Two were included in our farm share box last week, so I set out looking for fun ways to use them. I think that I once saw pomegranate cranberry sauce in a magazine - probably Food and Wine or maybe Martha - but I can't remember where, and pretty much just made this one up. It turned out delicious, and, like all cranberry sauce recipes, it is incredibly easy to make.

Pomegranate Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

1 bag of cranberries (about a pound)

Seeds from 1/2 of a pomegranate

Juice from 1 orange + enough water to make 1 cup of liquid

2/3 cup of sugar

1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses

I found the molasses at a speciality Spanish and mediterrean grocery store. If you can't track any down, I'd substitute pomegranate juice for the water, and possibly reduce the sugar to a half cup or so. Honestly, it's kind of hard to screw up cranberry sauce, once you know the basic recipe is 1 bag of cranberries, 1 cup of water, and 1 cup of sugar, so just work with what you've got and just adjust the amount of sugar based on what liquid you use and your own personal preference.

Directions

Put the cranberries, juice, water, sugar, and pomegranate molasses in a pot and bring to a boil.

Simmer for 8 minutes or so, then add the pomegranate seeds.

Simmer for an additional 2 minutes, then let the sauce completely cool to thicken.

That's it. That is how easy it is to make homemade cranberry sauce. Yum.