In the mood for a final dose of Mexican food on my trip, I headed for the Rio Grande Cafe for an enjoyable meal.
The restaurant is located in the classic Denver and Rio Grande Western train station. The beautiful decor is mostly original.
The meal started, of course with chips and salsa. The salsa featured large chunks of nicely firm, rich tomato that gave little bursts of tomato sweet/tart as well as a nice texture.
For my main course, I ordered carnitas. The meat was tender, moist, and flavorful. I would have enjoyed just a few crunchy bits, though. The refried beans were rich and comforting. Overall, a very nice meal.
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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