801 Chophouse has been on my Des Moines to-do list for quite some time. I didn't expect to be able to get in before the caucuses given the wall of reporters and politicians lined up for a table. But even a following weekend proved to be challenging. The wait, however, was worthwhile. The food and service were both excellence.
I will say that they don't make this place easy to find. I saw no outdoor signs and very few even inside the building.
This photo of my brussel sprouts is the only one that came out. They were slightly crisped but bathed in butter---very rich.
My steak was excellent. My server strongly recommended medium over medium rare, so I went with his suggestion. The outside had just the right amount of char. The interior was warm, juicy, tender. The steak flavor came through like a bell.
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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