Stephanie introduced me to several new things in Clayton, including her friend Jenny who runs Fromage. We started off with a sandwich at the Fromage booth at the Clayton fair. That's Jenny's mom showing us our roast beef and brie sandwich. The sandwich was element and I snuck a taste of their chocolate and peanut butter fudge thingie, which was wonderfully rich.
I took myself to dinner at the restaurant, which is located on a quite side street just down the hill from old main street, and proceeded to overindulge.
I started with a cheese platter. I'm always a sucker for goat cheeses but I also particularly loved the Wisconsin cheese on the left. The fruits and nuts were a superb complement.
Next came the tomato bisque soup. This one was surprising: very creamy and fairly salty. I really liked the combination, it's just very different from the tomato-centric way I make a bisque. (I just take a jar of homemade tomato sauce and throw in a little cream and some herbs.)
I really didn't need an entree, but I couldn't resist the pesto with happy pork belly. The meat portion isn't quite as overwhelming when you consider that a lot of it is fat (my mom trained me to cut off the fat), but it was still very generous, as were the portions of all the courses. The pork was succulent and tender. The pesto did an excellent job of balancing the basil with the cheese and nuts.
I couldn't make it to the dessert course; perhaps next time. Fromage is largely a lunch place, as with many of the establishments in Clayton. But they serve dinners on the fourth Friday and Saturday of the month all summer.
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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