Zocalo is in the party district of midtown, so it's not surprising that its signature dishes are margaritas and guacamole. Today, I decided to stick with the chicken mole. That's one of my reference dishes---I order it the first time I go to a Mexican restaurant to see how it stacks up. The bad news is that one part of my chicken breast was burnt to the texture of balsa wood---someone wasn't paying attention. But to their credit, the mole sauce was excellent. It was well balanced with a strong chocolate note that didn't overpower the basic savoriness of the dish.
I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...
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