Cranberry Sauce with a Croatian twist

I love making the holidays extra special with my homemade cranberry sauce with a Croatian twist. The depth of flavour will have you adding this cranberry sauce to everything. This past summer while in Croatia I made sure to add Prošek to my list of things to bring back with me. Prošek is a sweet dessert wine that is traditionally from the southern area of Dalmatia, Croatia. It is made using dried wine grapes in the passito method. This method of winemaking is made from grapes that have been dried off the wine to concentrate the juices.

My cranberry sauce is the perfect accompaniment with turkey or lamb.

Ingredients

1/4 sugar or your sugar substitute I used coconut sugar

1/2 cup of Prošek

1 1/2 cups cranberries

1 orange (juice of orange)

Directions

1. Rinse and wash cranberries in a colander.

2. Place the sugar and Prošek in a medium saucepan on high heat and bring to a boil. Stir until sugar dissolves.

3. Add the orange juice

4. Add the cranberries and cook until they burst about 5 -8 minutes. Keep an eye on them so that it doesn’t overbuild or burn. Stirring often.

5. Take off heat and allow to cool (Note: the cranberry sauce will continue to thicken once cooled) If you find it a little thick add a splash of water and mix.

I love cranberry sauce with appetizers as well. Here I took some gluten-free crackers, added Boursin truffle cheese and topped with my cranberry sauce.

Croatian Appetizer-Tuna Pate

Take your boring canned tuna and transform it into something decadent and delicious in less than 10 minutes.  Pate or Pasteta in Croatian is a true delicacy, but of course I didn’t know that growing up.  It was in second grade when I remember my first taste of liver pate. I wondered why all my friends didn’t have the same sandwich in their lunchbox. Everyday, my Mother schmeared a generous portion of pate on rye bread.   I have fond memories of going to our Croatian delicatessen and hearing my Mother tell the owner she wanted a little piece of pasteta.  

I eventually stopped eating pate, when I found out it was made of liver.  The food suddenly lost its appeal.  Decades later, when I returned to Croatia I became re-united with my childhood love.  One caveat, it was Tuna pate that pulled at my heart strings and taste buds.  Tuna pate seemed to be on every restaurant menu in the Adriatic coast. When it came time to prepare a dish for this World Cup soccer match, I closed my eyes and tried to remember all the foods that brought me joy this past summer in Croatia, and tuna pate was top of mind.

Pasteta is traditionally served with bread, crackers, or vegetables.  I enjoy eating mine with gluten free pretzels and cauliflower crackers. Tuna pasteta is served cold pro tip chilling it for a couple days will enrich its flavours.  It’s amazing to serve as an appetizer or for Tea party.  Here are the ingredients that I used in my tuna pate:

Ingredients

1 Canned tuna in water

1/4 cup cream cheese

1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill

2 small Spring scallions- chop the scallions into small pieces

1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1/4 teaspoon salt

Paprika seasoning

Capers on the side

Directions

1. Drain tuna and place in food processor along with cream cheese.  Pulse until well combined. Add remaining ingredients and pulse a couple times until combined and creamy.

2. Serve on a plate with your favourite gluten free crackers, or pretzels alongside capers.  Don’t forget to add a sprinkle of paprika on top on each dollop of pate.