Cranberry sauce

Serves 8

Glistening blood-red, the little cranberries in this sauce pop just very slightly in your mouth. It goes perfectly with hot, succulent turkey but also with the baked ham. It must, however, be not too sweet, for then it is cloying – a very slight tartness is nice.

The grated zest and juice of one orange
5 whole cloves
A small slice of ginger
80ml/3fl oz port
170g/6oz caster sugar
700g/25oz cranberries

Place the orange juice, zest, cloves, ginger, port and sugar into a pan and place over a low heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and, once dissolved, add the cranberries. Bring the heat up to a simmer and cook, stirring from time to time for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat; the cranberries should have just popped and the sauce thickened. Allow to cool to room temperature. Place in the fridge until ready to use. It can be made up to two days in advance. '