After reading this recipe for homemade ricotta in Serious Eats, I decided to make some myself for a batch of lasagne. I boiled milk with a little vinegar to encourage clotting. After cooking, I carefully strained the curds, a process that took quite some time given the small curds.
I made two batches of pasta for the lasagne.
The yield of ricotta was smaller than I had hoped, even after starting with a half gallon of milk. I managed to eke out a thin covering for two layers of lasagne. As advertised, the ricotta gave a very delicate taste and texture. But its qualities were somewhat masked by the rest of the lasagne. I would reserve the ricotta-making process for other dishes that give a higher platform for its qualities.
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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