About 4 months ago we all chose an ingredient for our Slow Travel Small Bites cooking/blogging group. I looked at the date for my pick and thought of cranberries. Turned out, it was a challenging choice for lots of us, especially for an appetizer type dish.
From the very beginning, I was thinking chutney and, in the end, that’s what I did.
Cranberry Chutney
4 cups cranberries
1/2 plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
Toss the above ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Then:
1 small onion, chopped
1” piece of ginger
3 cloves garlic
1-2 dried chilies
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 cinnamon sticks
4 star anise
3 tablespoons canola oil
Process the ginger and garlic together to make almost a paste.
Saute the onion in the oil for about 5 minutes, then add the ginger and garlic paste and cook about 5 more minutes at a very low heat.
Add the spices and cook, stirring until fragrant—1 or 2 minutes more.
Add the cranberry mixture. Bring to a boil. Let it cook for about 5 minutes until almost all of the cranberries are popped. Simmer for about 20 minutes more. Let cool in the pan. Remove the anise, cinnamon and chilies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I was lucky enough to get beautiful organic cranberries from the Cape Cod area through our local friends at Turkey Hill Farms.
Ideas for using the chutney–you could serve it with a strong flavored cheese or even with cream cheese. You could make little sandwiches with pork tenderloin or smoked turkey–on a mini southern biscuit–yum.
Happy cooking week, friends.