Cranberry-Lime Shrub Sparkler

Recipe courtesy of Fine Cooking

I have been really excited to try this recipe for a few reasons – the Name (Shrub), the Ingredients (Champagne vinegar) and the fact that it can made with or without alcohol.  With only four ingredients, this was an extremely simple recipe to carry out!

A quick background lesson before we begin…vinegar-infused drinks were popular in 18^th Century because the vinegar helped to preserve the drink due to no refrigeration and they were also a good way to use up fruit that was a little past its prime. The word ‘shrub’ has nothing to do with your juniper bush out front…it originates from the Arabic word, ‘sharab’, which means ‘to drink’.

Now let’s get started!

• Rinse and pick out the ‘icky’ cranberries from a 12 oz bag (the Cranberry Trick is to put the cranberries in a bowl of water – the good ones float, the bad ones sink. Think of it as a mini cranberry bog)
• Measure out a cup a sugar –white, raw, agave syrup, etc (I made a double-batch and used 1 cup white and 1 cup raw and used agave syrup at the end when I tasted and found it to be a bit too tart still)
• Make a strip of lime zest – I did about 6 2-inch strips (the recipe calls for 1 strip ½ X 2 inches)
• ¾ cup Champagne vinegar (but really, you could use any kind you want here – I think that the Champagne lends itself nicely to the cranberries in this though)

Now pour it all into a stock pot, stir and bring to a boil

When it has reached boiling point, the cranberries should be starting to split and pop. Turn the heat down to low/low-medium and cover with a lid.  Every so often, give the mixture a stir to check the consistency. You are looking for the cranberries to be completely broken down – it took me about 15 minutes, the recipe says 20 minutes. Once the cranberries have reached this point, take the pot off the heat.

Pull out your immersion blender – my favorite tool of all time!! -  (some like to call it a hand blender) and puree that mixture up. The recipe says you need to strain it through a sieve but mine was so smooth and lump-free that I did not see it necessary.  The concentrate will keep up to 2 months so I chose to pour mine into a hermetic glass jar to keep it as fresh (and BPA-free) and possible.

When it’s finally Thursday and time to drink a few of these beauties, mix 3-4 Tbsp of the shrub with seltzer and vodka – or no vodka…whichever you prefer.CHEERS!!!

PS – the recipe tells you that the shrub is excellent with chicken or pork or as a base for a vinaigrette.  Hopefully we don’t drink it all so I can try it out that way too.  And if not, this is so easy to make I can always whip up another batch!