Sauced for the Holidays

Having no god and preferring few gifts, all we have is food when it comes to the holy days of winter. And so we tend to rev our ovens with reckless abandon. But if there’s just one complaint we have with Thanksgiving and Christmas cooking, it’s the general lack of hot sauce. Fruit cake spices replace spice. The only thing resembling red on your plate is cranberry gloop. And sloshing Sriracha, Tapatio or Frank’s Red Hot all over a 4-hour gravy seems sacrilege. We’ve tried before to insert hot sauce into the holidays, to various mixed awesome results.

This year, we solved our sauce dilemma once and for all: Holiday harissa. We started with a base of our beer-braised cranberry sauce, which we perfected this year. Then we made it hot. Blended with a slew of roasted chiles, it comes out slightly sweet, very tart, and spruced with a subtle clove essence. One part sweet-inducing sting, one-part chai spice tongue comforter. The best part? If you make the cranberry sauce but get too lazy to roast a buttload of chiles, blend the amount you would have used (1 cup) with equal parts gin, spritz with champagne and garnish with a lime wedge and you have something that actually helps you survive a holiday with family.

Cranberry Sauce
(Makes about 4 cups)

1 bag cranberries (12 oz.)
2 1/2 cups Lindemann’s cherry kriek
1 cup Belgian candi syrup (brown sugar works)
1 cinnamon stick
zest of one orange
1 tsp. fresh grated ginger
½ tsp. salt

1. Place cranberries in a pot and cover with kriek, stir in candi syrup. Add cinnamon stick, orange zest, ginger and salt. Place on medium heat and let cook until mixture hits a rolling boil. Place on simmer and let cook another 10 minutes.

2. Mixture should be gooey, cranberries should have burst. Taste and sweeten more if desired. Remove from heat and cool.

Winter Harissa
(Makes 4 cups)

12 dried large red chiles (California or New Mexico)
6 fresh jalapenos
6 yellow wax peppers
2 pasilla peppers
1 cup cranberry sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 Tbs. kosher salt
1 tsp. clove

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees while you deal with the chiles. Wearing gloves, slice open the dry chiles and place in a large bowl. Cover with a cup of warm water to re-hydrate.

2. Slice the jalapenos, wax peppers and pasillas and remove the seeds. Place chiles in a bowl and spray with canola oil, dump onto a sheet pan and shove into oven. Roast for about 20-30 minutes, until outer peppers start to blacken. Remove and let cool.

3. In a food processor, pulse the rehydrated red chiles, the roasted peppers and cranberry sauce. Slowly add vinegar and olive oil. Continue to blend for at least a minute to guarantee creamy consistency. If it appears goopy, add the leftover red chile water one tablespoon at a time. Add salt and spices and pulse some more.

4. Remove and store in the refrigerator. Harissa will keep for weeks.

Beverage: Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale
Soundtrack: AIR’s “Do the Joy”