A steak dinner gave me the chance to grill on my new Pit Barrel Cooker. The grill comes with the cooker. It sits more than a foot above the coals. The grill itself doesn't get very hot---I was able to hold my hand just above the grill for quite some time. Thanks to the low heat level, I needed to grill my steaks for over 30 minutes to get them to medium rare on the thermometer.
The result was very tasty: nice smoky flavor, good crust, tender interior. But the process takes much longer than with a traditional grill. Perhaps adding more coals would have provided more heat but I doubt that would completely solve the problem. In my experience, the Pit Barrel Cooker is a good backup grill but a little slow for everyday use.
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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