Our Texas Instruments were in town and graciously took a group of us to Nan. I usually go to this restaurant for lunch so dinner was a special treat. I just wanted to write a quick blog note to say how much I enjoy this restaurant (not to mention the company). We started with the tasting tree which gave us a variety of dishes ranging from Thai-style spring rolls to fried octopus rings. The accompanying sauces also gave us the full spectrum of flavors. I'm a sucker for cocoanut soup. For my main course I tried the duck for the first time; that is one of those things that is hard to find anywhere. Nan's duck was succulent and gave very subtle, non-gamy flavors.
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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