hermetica

Ithe night before Hexmas and all though the house..yadayada..

Ok heres my Xmas gift to everyone. In the spirit of Karalynn and her recipe postings, here is one of my faves for this time of year. Er.. Im the daughter of a chef, so dont expect things like accurate measurements...

Cranberries and Shallots in Port

You need:

1 bag of fresh cranberries (canned or frozen wont do sorry)
1 bunch fresh rosemary
enough shallots (or blanched pearl onions) to put up a good fight with the cranberries (usually 1 of those small net bags and a bit is enough)
Port wine
Brown sugar
Butter
a bit of oil for the dish
s and p

Ok. Rinse the cranberries and put in oiled shallow baking dish. Peel shallots (I halve or quarter them but no smaller than that) and add them in nicely distributed.
Combine about 1 cup or port and about 1/2 cup of brown sugar together- more if you want the dish sweeter and add to the cranberries. There should be enough that all the cranberries and shallots have that 'plump ladies doing aquabics in the shallow end of the pool' look- you know what Im saying.. Salt an' pepper, and then dot liberally(I love butter, so I mean LIBERALLY) with butter. Trim and wash rosemary sprigs, and you can either cut the leaves into the dish or place the whole stems in with everything else, depending on how much you like rosemary in your teeth.Remember to get some of those stems down in the port mixture.Put in the oven for about 1/2 hour, or until the shallots are tender and the cranberries are too.I just stick the wole damn thing in with whatever's roasting at the time, so that temperatures good. Remove when ready, and if desired, remove rosemary sprigs. Goes well with that bigass stuffed pterodactyl everyone likes at this time of year. This recipe can be altered to taste, some people I know prefer to leave everything out except the port.
Happy hoho.
I wont make you answer questions today cause I havent had enough wine yet to think of anything worht asking.