Cranberry cippolini compote

One of my favorite things about living on Capitol Hill is how close I am to Eastern Market. The market is a great place to walk around, pick up fresh fruits and vegetables, and get brunch. A cool recent development has been the addition of cooking demonstrations on Saturday mornings. Jonathan Bardzik, author of the outstanding food blog, What I Haven't Cooked Yet, cooks some delicious food and gives very entertaining performances teaching the audience how to make his dishes.

This recipe comes from a demonstration he gave of various Thanksgiving side dishes. It's a bad sign that it took me until Martin Luther King Day to post a Thanksgiving dish. I really need to get up to speed with my posts. I'm not normally a big cranberry sauce fan. The canned cranberry sauce that comes out as one gelatinous blob creeps the bejeezus out of me. This cranberry compote is lighter than most cranberry sauce recipes. It's also more savory and less sweet than most versions. I thought it was so tasty that I had to try making it at home and it turned out quite well. This is a great side dish, even for non-Thanksgiving meals.

Ingredients
2 cups cippolini or pearl onions
2 tbs butter
3/4 cup maple sugar (If you can't find maple sugar  you can substitute a mixture of half light brown sugar and half white sugar.)
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp finely chopped rosemary
1.5 cups vegetable or veal stock
2 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup port
1/2 cup apple cider

Directions
1. Blanch onions in boiling water for 1 minute. Remove to an ice bath. Trim tips and roots of onions, be careful to leave the base of the onion intact so that they don’t fall apart. If the onions are larger than bite sized, cut them in half.
2. Melt butter over medium heat in a 3 qt saucepan. Add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes, until golden brown in places.

3. Add 1/4 cup sugar, garlic and rosemary. Cook 1-2 minutes until garlic is golden.

3. Pour in stock, reduce heat and simmer until liquid reduces to a thick glaze. Be careful not to burn the garlic as the liquid reduces.
4. Add cranberries, port, and cider. Simmer over low heat until liquid is reduced to a glaze and cranberries have turned jammy. The cranberries will pop delightfully as they cook. but don’t worry, the juices don’t spatter out of the pot.

5. Season to taste with balsamic vinegar, a pinch of salt and pepper, and additional sugar if needed.

The Results