r/AskCulinary • u/Skank_Hunt0717 • 4d ago
Cranberries!?
Halp! I’m supposed to be making cranberry/jalapeño dip for my work’s pot luck tomorrow and the recipe calls for 12 oz fresh cranberries so they can soak in this sugar lime mixture over night. I was going to substitute frozen, but I can’t find them anywhere. I’m in Pensacola, Fl btw. Not at Greers. Non at Walmart, Publix, or Winn-Dixie. So no frozen and no fresh. How can I substitute it? Get em whole in the can and rinse and drain? Or get dried ones? Use something else like pomegranate and cherries? Substitute with raspberries? Think it’ll taste the same? Or should I just scrap it all together?
Here is the recipe I am working with: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/cranberry-jalapeno-cream-cheese-dip-sugar-rush-reinvented-7/[recipe](https://www.melskitchencafe.com/cranberry-jalapeno-cream-cheese-dip-sugar-rush-reinvented-7/)
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u/solosaulo 4d ago edited 4d ago
omg! im so sorry you are in this predicament last minute! and what a shame all these places don't carry such a widely used product for alcohol drinks and desserts. honestly - shame on these corporations! like we shouldnt be able to buy seasonal fruits all year long. but cranberries aren't really supposed to be a 'seasonal' fruit per say. these billions of berries are harvested during their season, and frozen for all year round consumption. like that is the point.
in terms of the frozen cranberries, all freezer fruits are flash frozen fresh to maintain product quality. also in your recipe, you're gonna dice them up anyways to make a dip. but as you said, they arent available.
i 'kinda' second the canned cranberries substitute. they will be chopped up anyways. but if you buy WHOLE berry cranberry sauce, then your dip is basically already made for you. but then again, you didn't really 'potluck' for the potluck. you just basically poured out a can of whole cranberry sauce on to a platter.
like im not saying that is bad. but im not sure if certain coworkers would give you the side eye, lol. since you didn't actually make something that requires either cooking or technique
im not sure how you rehydrate dried cranberries back to life. maybe there is a way maybe somebody knows this. but i am assuming if you let them soak overnight in water, i don't think they will be puffy and glorious by the morning time. maybe you could boil them until they are more jelly like? ive never tried. like i know you can do that with dried jumbo raisins that still have significant moisture. but dried cranberries are rather dry. they have shrunken down so far, that they are miniscule, lol. and you would also need to boil out their extremely high sugar content.
actually regular cranberries really arent that sweet. they are more tart. and i think the point of this recipe is to pair that with the acid of the lime juice, and cilantro compliments well too. its almost like a fresh sweet-ish salsa.
another idea i thought was two use canned cranberry pudding (the regular jello kind), and either boil dried cranberries as best you can, and mix them in with the pudding. and also top dried ones on top as a decoration. like at least there was a technique, and you are aiming to create a specific texture and look. even top with pomegranite seeds. but i don't think you can create your salsadip entirely out of crunchy pomegranite seeds. and how many pomgrenatites would you need to and pomegranites are expensive.
i think fresh cherries is possible. i researched and saw your same recipe with cherries as sub. cherries are both tart and sweet! but if you have to halve, and depit each cherry. like it is doable, and that actually shows a lot of technique and dedication. to get that pit out very quickly, you need a depitter tho. its like this handle with the metal bracey curvey shaped thing, which you use to carve out black spots in potatoes.
i just bought one today. your post reminded, just how much we need all the plethora of cooking instruments.
the only thing i didnt like about this recipe was its lack lustre presentation. i saw the pictures. cilantro is in the mixture already. good!. i think some extra toppings of finely diced green onions or scallions, cut on any angle you like (NOT FINELY CUT CHIVES THO). i find chives are moreso a soup toppper. and some sprinkles of crumbled of feta would be nice. that is just my palette. a dip cant just be a dip. there has to be some sort of garnish on top.
i actually never heard this recipe and it excites me! good on you! like a savoury hot relish with creamy cream cheese spread over crackers. its christman again in january. sorry i didnt have any foolproof answers for you at the last minute. but i am learning with everybody else on here.
i hope you knock it out of the park!
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u/Skank_Hunt0717 4d ago
Thank you so much for lengthy reply. I greatly appreciate all the effort. And yeah I don’t know anything about cherries and I’m not a huge cherry fan so I was hesitant about that way. And I feel like all the other ways wouldn’t really help the cream cheese soften and soak up the juice to be softer/dippier Yeah that recipe I added was similar to the one I use. I actually use a hand written one by a friend who made it like 3 years ago and it was delicious. But yeah I usually put it in a shaped glass dish with the cream cheese on bottom and soft and then after the mix has sat overnight in the fridge, I drain some of the juice and pour the rest on top so it can so in and people can just spoon or drip the cream cheese with salsa thing on top. I’m not a fan of jalapeños either or spicy. But it’s not spicy. It’s delicious.
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u/solosaulo 3d ago
thanks! i just wanted to respond to your specific post to do this specific recipe. i hope your potluck went well, and your dip was a hit! your dip was DOPE! the glassware idea is good! you bring your dish out, and people are like WWWOOOWWW!
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u/Skank_Hunt0717 4d ago
But I was going to take the L and just make some stuffed mushroom and my cranberry Brie bites. But I don’t have a small muffin tin lol
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u/solosaulo 3d ago edited 3d ago
im assuming the L means The L Train. i didn't know ppl now just saying im taking the L, lol.
i noticed when you make hors-d'oeuvres and little itty bitty bite things at potlucks (stuffed mushrooms as you said, or your delicious cranberry dip), they are always the first to go. likes its both pleasing to know, but also kind of offending. once this middle eastern lady at my old workplace made baba ghanoush sprinkled with pomegranite and pita, and it was just collectively slurped up.
ppl make these awesome mac n cheeses, and bomb potato salads, and intricate tomato salads with olives and feta, even curries. and they are left like only 50% eaten.
i realize i know why. since its a grab situation. the ppl just start grabbing all the small itty bitty stuff, since they see the plate starting to deplete, and they know they realize theres gonna be no more left soon.
like if you just grilled some sausages, and cut them into bite size pieces, and put them on a small platter, and you also made a board of just different cut up cheeses. the cheeses deplete so slow, but the sausages are all gone in 5 minutes. all your mushrooms and brie bites all gone.
or its a novelty dish, so ppl are like i wanna try!
this only happens at workplace potlucks. when you do a dinner party with a lot of guests. ppl are just mingling, and when they are offered something, they take it. and they just take one at a time. well, alcohol is usually the meal, lol, anyways. ppl fill up on that.
... but like mobbing the appetizer table, and just grabbing what they can. ppl don't do that. and you pace yourself, since you know you got a main course and dessert to appreciate too. like you know there is the entirety of someone's meal you got to appreciate.
ppl at weddings also pace themselves. guys are in tight dress shirts, and girls in tight dresses. and you also need to get lit on the dancefloor at the end of the night, and have the perfect balance of fullness and alcohol in your system, without you popping out of your clothes. buttons popping, and dresses tearing.
the motives are different i guess. one is to truly mingle and socialize, and be present for a significant sharing event. the other is greed and instincts.
so at the workplace potluck, it is flattering to see all your food go. but you also got the side eye, and thinking about the mentalities of your coworkers the bite sized gobbly munchy things ARE to be enjoyed, but also try other ppl's casseroles and baked dishes and seasoned rices from their cultures.
i personally am drawn to both. usually i am not fast enough to get the brie bites and stuffed mushrooms in time, by the time the line is finished. so i eat what's left. i didn't eat all those small appetizers (there were none left, lol), and ate the bomb haitian chicken instead, and seasoned rice. im still full tho.
******
i know i made an error like years ago. i really like this asian curry the asian bf of a white female colleage i knew had made for the potluck. im asian too. i complimented her (or her bf) immensely and said it was one of the best i had eaten in terms of homemade. but my colleages bf's dish was barely touched. i was basically the only person who had scooped some out. plus maybe a few others.
her bf had put too much lemongrass in. i was impressed that it was real lemongrass, since dried lemongrass sprinkles tastes of nothing. i personally really liked it! and it is hard to buy real lemongrass, unless you go to the asian supermarket.
she said why don't you bring the whole thing home? i said, your bf worked so hard to make this, bring it back home to him. so she took it all home.
what i thought i should have done, was to insist i bring at least half home. somehow. i really did like it!!! and a lot!!!. she thought it was the overpowering lemongrass that ppl didn't eat more. and i know it was bc ppl were already full on other things they could more easily grab. how could they detect too much lemongrass when they didn't even try it.
so for her to bring home her bf's prepared potluck contribution almost barely eaten ... could have been upsetting to him, especially since she ASKED him to make a contribution. she didn't cook it herself.
what a shitty feeling for her bf! i should have INSISTED gimme gimme gimme some to bring home.
(and a few days later she new i liked chinese sausage, 'lap chung', and she came to work with one in a ziplock bag, just to give to me. i KNEW it was bc she told her bf that there was only that one asian guy at work that said he really appreciated his curry. and her bf was like bring this lap chung to him, lol).
******
im a guy, but personally i think it is the men at the work place that are doing this. it's like im a grown man, and i don't have mum to cook for me anymore, so i just grab everything i can, since i don't know how to even use a serving spoon to put rice on the plate.
sorry for the tldr. i am chatty and emotional.
also for the same potluck, i made some skewers with just some sauteed shrimps, a store brought jalapeno 'mexicano' cheese i cubed, cherry tomatoes, and canned pinneable bits. it was also all gone in seconds.
im like idiots. this is not a real brochette i bbq'd or a kebab. this is shit i skewered on a stick. the only reason they ate it since they could just pick up the skewer and put it on the plate. all other dishes require serving spoon
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u/This_One_Will_Last 3d ago
You could use dried. Reconstitute in a liquid overnight, I would do bourbon or cherry for cranberry jalapeno but water or cranberry juice will work. If you are short time put some in hot water and nuke it for 5 minutes.
It'll be different but still great.
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u/quokkaquarrel 3d ago
With the recipe you posted, pomegranate sounds like it would work really well!
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u/D-ouble-D-utch 4d ago
Frozen will be fine
Clearly I can't read.
Canned will work don't add sugar.