I decided to make another attempt at beef stew, this time without the slow cooker. I started by browning some onions along with bacon.
I had marinated the beef in red wine. It went into the dutch oven along with the onions, bacon, beef stock, and chicken stock. The dutch oven went into the oven, lid ajar, for about two hours.
After the beef had cooked for awhile, I added an assortment of vegetables: chunks of carrot, turnip, parsnip, pearl onions, okra, and green beans.
Another hour of cooking and I had enough stew for several evenings.
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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