Cranberry Thokku / Spicy Cranberry Relish

Cranberries are in plenty now. I had posted a recipe for Cranberry Orange Bread, Cranberry Salsa and White Chocolate Cranberry Fudge

Recently, I saw a recipe for cranberry thokku and was interested in making that. It is super easy to make and tastes great with rotis, idly, dosa and rice. The original recipe also called for tamarind. Cranberries are so tart themselves, I avoided the tamarind, but used brown sugar instead to balance the tartness and heat from the red chilli powder.


Get Ready:

• 1 Pack Fresh cranberries
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1/4 tsp vendhayam/ fenugreek or methi seeds
• 1 tsp mustard seeds/ kadugu
• 1 tsp urad dal
• 1 red chilli broken in half
• a few curry leaves
•  1/2 tsp Hing/ asafotida
• 3-4 tsp red chilli powder or to taste
• Salt to taste
• 2 tsp brown sugar or jaggery to taste

Go:

• Wash and drain the cranberries.

• In a pan, dry roast the fenugreek/ methi or vendhayam. Once cool, powder them. I used my mortar and pestle to powder them. set aside.
• In a large pan, add the oil and do the tadka with mustard seeds, urad dal, red chilli curry leaves and hing. Turn the heat to medium

• Add the cranberries, salt toss them and cover. The berries pop and will become mushy very soon.
• Add the red chilli powder, brown sugar and cook till everything is mushy. Adjust spice level as per your taste.

• Add the vendhayam/ fenugreek powder and cook till the thokku comes round like a ball without sticking to the sides of the pan.
• Turn the heat off and store in a clean air tight container. It stays good for a week if refrigerated.