Holiday Recipe: Cranberry-Cherry-Walnut Chutney

This recipe came originally from Cooking Light Magazine. It's very easy to make, and is very tasty (I've seen people eat it with a spoon, like preserved fruit). I will add a photo next time I make it, but it just looks like a cranberry-colored jam.

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup port or other sweet red wine
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries
2/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Orange rind strips (optional)

Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Add cherries, and cook 1 minute. Stir in cranberries; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until cranberries pop. Remove from heat. Stir in walnuts, grated rind, and extract. Garnish with orange rind strips, if desired. Cover and chill.

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1/4 cup)

CALORIES 108(25% from fat); FAT 3g (sat 0.2g,mono 0.7g,poly 2g); PROTEIN 1.5g;
CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 11mg; SODIUM 2mg; FIBER 1.8g; IRON 0.3mg;
CARBOHYDRATE 19.7g
Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2005

An Update on the Distilled Wines

We had a friend over to celebrate Girl-Child's birthday last night, and -- because he was asking, nay, pestering -- we brought out the Vin de Noix (the fortified red wine infused with walnuts) and the Nocino (simply vodka infused with walnuts). The vin de noix is about 5 weeks out of distilling, the nocino only about 3. The vin de noix is really quite tasty, definitely stepping into port territory (not even sure we can taste the walnuts actually).

The nocino needs more aging, to be generous. Strongly flavored, it is also strongly bitter. We realized it needs to be filtered at least on more time -- gazillions of tiny black spots float in the liquid, so many we expect we accidentally confused pitchers and poured together one filtered and one unfiltered batches. The floating walnut bits probably make it more bitter than otherwise. So more filtering to come, and then some more time.

We are glad we have so many bottles of the vin de noix, however. Enough to give a few away, yet still have plenty to savor ourselves.

Vivi's Thunder is Stolen by The Bride

I, too, decanted our Nocino this past week, but didn't get around to blogging about it. The drink is quite raw (nicely said, Bride) but I think we like it more than the vin de noix, at least for now. It's bitter, but rich, intriguing.

I have a photo, however. It is a little over-exposed, but it shows off well the greenness of the liqueur. (That's a Girl-Child pottery doodad obscured by light in front.)

Vivi Decants Vin de Noix

A few days ago we decanted the first batch of the vin de noix -- the San Francisco Chronicle version of the recipe. (Read about the infusion step here.) It took about 20 coffee filters, in five cycles of straining -- after starting with cheesecloth over a fine metal sieve -- to clear out the sediment. The half batch I made provided us with five half-liter bottles to give away, and one to keep for ourselves. (Bottles from Costco World Market.)


We aren't sure we like the flavor. It is definitely nutty, and a little sweet, and it lasts in your throat for a long, long time after swallowing. But it is rather bitter, too, and one dimensional. I though the flavor was all on the back of the tongue; HomoDomi all on the front -- either way, it was simple, changing over time, but always in linear fashion. (I am not a foodie, I don't taste "hints of blackberry and compost" in an expensive wine (see below), but this is the only way to describe the liqueur's flavor). We added one tablespoon of maple syrup to the batch, instead of more sugar, and that helped, a little.

I am told by The Bride that the liqueurs can and will change and deepen in flavor over time, so we'll give this a while. This recipe is interesting because you steep the walnuts in wine, and only add vodka and sugar when you decant it. In comparison, the Nocino (and the other vin de noix recipe that The Bride is making) steep the walnuts in the vodka and sugar directly. So I imagine the liqueur will have ample opportunity to flower in flavor as it ages.

About that "blackberry and compost" -- this is from Posh Nosh, a wonderful filler show (e.g., 10 minutes long, filling space between irregular length shows) on BBC a few years ago:

The Bride makes Walnut and Cherry Liqueurs

The Bride, following in Vivi's footsteps, has made two kinds of walnut liqueur. (Thanks for sending me the walnuts, Vivi and Girl child). The middle jar and the righthand jar are Vin de Noix and Nocino, respectively. I actually used the other recipe for the Vin de Noix, the one Vivi didn't use. It calls for 'bitter orange peel'. I'm working on getting it, but I just went ahead and made it without. And the Nocino on the far right - look how dark it has gotten. It started out clear with lovely green walnut quarters floating in it. I only made 1/2 recipe of each, because that's how many walnuts I had. If it's good, I'll have to get Vivi to send me more next summer.

The 2 gallon jar on the far left is Vin de Cerise, made from a recipe in the same French cookbook as the Vin de Noix recipe I used. This one we've made before and I love it. I highly recommend trying this while the cherries are available. I made the full 3 liters, but you could make less.

Vin de Cerise
3 liters of red or rose wine
1 kilo of black cherries
1/2 litre of vodka or eau de vie
500 grams of sugar

Crush the cherries (I put them in a strong plastic zip lock bag and smashed them with a flat meat tenderizer.) Leave the pits in place - much of the flavor comes from the pits. Put everything in a large jar. Mine is 2 gallons. Swirl the contents around every day for 15 days of maceration. After that, filter and put in bottles and let sit a little longer. The cherries that you filter out are really good with ice cream, once you pick the pits out.