I was interested in bringing some smoked salmon back home. I kept seeing Alaska Sausage and Seafood in the stores. When I realized that they are located in Anchorage I decided to go to the source. The store clearly has roots in German sausage that nicely complement their seafood. They offer several types of salmon, including king and sockeye, both of which are more flavorful than the types that generally make it down to the lower 48. I went home with two types of smoked salmon. One required no refrigeration, not quite a jerky; I have saved this for later. The other does require some refrigeration. I took it home in a cold pack and am happily working through it.
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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