On the 2nd day of create christmas

 Alan stewed for me... kilners of cranberry sauce

No Christmas lunch is complete without cranberry sauce. Although not native to the British farm and field, cranberries are the best thing to come out of America (followed closely by Britney Spears).

Ingredients

450g fresh or frozen cranberries if you can't get fresh
200ml of red wine
50ml red wine vinegar
125ml of fresh orange juice
25ml of cherry brandy
150g caster sugar
2 strips of orange zest
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
5 cloves

1) Tie your cloves, cinamon stick, star anise and orange zest into a little piece of muslin, make sure you leaves a long piece of string on the end so you can fish it out later.
2) Pour your cranberries into a large sauce pan and over a gentle heat allow them to gently stew away so the skins pop and some of the natural juices are released
3) As soon as you have a little juice in the bottom of the pan add the sugar and stir until all the cranberries and coated and allow to simmer for a minute or so.
4) Add the wine, orange juice and cherry brandy and pop in the little spice bag you made earlier, tie the end onto the sauce pan handle so you can easily pull this out later
5) Allow to simmer until the liquid has reduced by a third and you have a losse cranberry compot

Once cooled you can freeze the sauce and that is one less thing to worry about on Christmas eve, as long as you remember to take it out of the freezer!