I used some chuck from Tucker Meat Market to make a pot of stew. I marinated the meat in red wine, then used some of the wine in the stew along with beef stock. I cooked the beef for a little while, then added some root vegetables, then finally some okra. I cooked everything in a Dutch oven sitting inside the oven, mostly at about 275 degrees. The entire process took about three hours. I should have done a little more to thicken the sauce; I had counted on the okra but it wasn't quite enough to thicken as well as I would have liked. But overall, the stew was hearty and tender.
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...

Comments
Post a Comment