Maylee at Beyond Gumbo 
I can’t wait for fresh cranberries to make their appearance in grocery stores in the wintertime. There is so much you can do with these little berries in addition to serving canned jellied cranberry sauce with turkey and dressing at holiday meals. Here’s an absolutely delicious but unusual recipe for using fresh cranberries. These versatile winter berries make a wonderful, tangy BBQ sauce. When I paired the Cranberry BBQ Sauce with a meatballs for a party appetizer, the flavors just pop. The BBQ sauce is both sweet and sour, with ginger, citrus and tart cranberry flavors. With the holiday season ending, I purchased the last remaining cranberries so that I can still cook this dish. It makes a wonder appetizer for all those football bowl games coming up in January or just a great supper meal.
Cranberries are so tart, but they add an inviting flavor and color to every holiday recipe — from baked desserts such as bars, cakes and cranberry pie to salads, frozen treats and chutneys, This year, I have a new holiday recipe idea — Cranberry BBQ Sauce. I paired this with meatballs, Serve the meatballs as an appetizer at a buffet or as part of a meal. This BBQ sauce will also work well as a glaze for pork tenderloin or a chicken entree. It will made a great addition to an appetizer table when served with cream cheese and crackers. The Cranberry BBQ Sauce is striking as well as delicious.
This holiday cranberry sauce is super easy to make and requires just four ingredients. I made it by boiling cranberries on a low heat with brown sugar, ginger, orange juice and water.
After combining the ingredients, just let the sauce simmer away on the stove. Most of the cranberries popped, but a few remained whole. I like a smooth cranberry sauce, and strained out the skins of the whole cranberries.
I used my handy vintage food mill to strain out the whole cranberry skins. It worked perfectly. Don’t have one of these kitchen gadgets? A food immersion blender followed by a fine strainer also works. One 12-oz package of fresh cranberries yields 2 cups of cranberry sauce.
Cranberry BBQ Sauce
To finish the BBQ sauce, I blended the cranberry sauce with chili sauce, cider vinegar and Creole mustard (which is a hot mustard). Let all this mixture heat through. That’s it. Seems like this should be more difficult, but it is nice to have an easy recipe now and them.
Homemade meatballs
For my appetizer meatballs, I went the extra step and made homemade ones. It is easy enough to purchase frozen meatballs. However, homemade is so much better. My meatball recipe contains both ground beef and ground pork (not sausage). Plus, I add an egg, Italian bread crumbs and seasonings — Worchestershire sauce, onion, garlic powder and onion powder. In other words, my meatballs have some “zing” and a great flavor which complements the Cranberry BBQ Sauce.
This recipe makes a large batch of meatballs. Simply mix all the ingredients together for the meatballs. Then portion and roll them out into small balls using the palms of your hands. (It is easier to do this if you chill the meat mixture first.) I baked these meatlballs rather than brownng and frying them on the stove. So much easier. I will freeze what I don’t use for another time.
Drain excess fat from the meatballs and transfer the meatballs to a serving platter. Ladle the cranberry sauce over top. For a holiday buffet, add meatballs to a heated casserole dish and ladle Cranberry BBQ Sauce over top.
I love this tangy Cranbery BBQ sauce. And the homemade meatballs are pretty good, too. Actually, much better than any you can purchase at a grocery store. These “Appetizer Meatballs with Cranberry BBQ Sauce” didn’t last long.
It is nice to have another use for cranberries in addition to making baked desserts and salads. This recipe is a great encore to the holiday season and a good way to use all those fresh cranberries. Enjoy!
And Happy New Year!
Appetizer Meatballs with Cranberry BBQ Sauce
Ingredients for Meatballs:
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
Ingredients for Cranberry Sauce
- 12 oz bag fresh, cranberries, sorted and rinsed
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup orange juice (or 1 Tbsp frozen orange juice dissolved in enough water to yield 1/2 cup)
- 1 cup additional water
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Ingredients for BBQ Sauce
- 1 recipe (about 2 cups) Cranberry Sauce, see above
- 1 Tbsp Creole mustard
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup chili sauce
Method and Steps:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cover large baking sheet with foil.
- Mix ground beef and ground pork in bowl along with the chopped onion.
- Add Italian bread crumbs, eggs, Worchestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Mix well until all ingredients are well combined.
- Shape into 1″-diameter meatballs. (It helps to shape meatballs, refrigerate; then roll with your hands for evenly shaped round meatballs.)
- Arrange meatballs on foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 350 degrees for 15 minutes until meatballs are cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside while mkaing BBQ Sauce
- Meanwhile, make Cranberry Sauce: bring cranberries (sorted and rrinsed) brown sugar, orange juice, extra water and ginger to a boil in medium-sized pot over medium-high heat. Stir frequently. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until berries burst and sauce thickens, about 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
- Transfer cranberry sauce to a food mill; grind and strain to remove skins. Alternatively, transfer to food processor or use immersion blender to process until smooth. Strain through fine-mesh sieve — pressing down to extract all sauce. Discard soilds.
- To make BBQ Sauce: in medium-sized sauce ban, stir together cranberry sauce, Creole mustard, apple cider vinegar and chili sauce until heated through.
- Drain any fat off meatballs. Transfer meatballs to heated casserole dish or serving platter Ladle Cranberry BBQ Sauce over top of meatballs.
I agree, cranberries are underutilized outside of the holidays! These meatballs sound great for all the game day events coming up soon!
Thanks! Gotta love those cranberries.